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THE  MAKING  OF  THE 
CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


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MAY  20  19] 

The  Making  of  the 
Church  of  England 

(A.D.  597-1087) 

A  Course  of  Historical  Ledures 


BY 

THOMAS  ALLEN  TIDBALL,  D.D, 

SOMETIME   PROFESSOR  OF   ECCLESIASTICAL   HISTORY 

IN   THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   THE    SOUTH,    SEWANEE 

NOW  SPECLIL  LECTURER  IN  EARLY  ENGLISH 

CHURCH    HISTORY^    AUTHOR   OF    "CHRIST 

IN   THE   NEW  TESTAMENT." 


BOSTON 

The  Stratford  Company,  Publishers 
1919 


Copyright   1919 

The  STRATFORD  CO.;  Publishers 

Boston,   Mass. 


The  Alpine  Press,  Boston,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 


DEDICATED 

TO 

THE  DEAE  AND  GRACIOUS  MEMORY 

OF 

MARY  JOSEPHINE  TIDBALL 

AND  TO 

MARY  COLLINGWOOD  TUCKER 


PREFACE 


WHILE  I  was  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory in  the  Theological  Department  of  the 
University  of  the  South,  it  was  my  custom  to  lecture 
to  the  Senior  Class  on  the  History  of  the  Church  of 
England  in  general.  But  I  gave  special  attention  to 
Early  English  Church  History  in  particular,  from  the 
Foundation  of  that  Church  in  A.  D.  597  to  the  Nor- 
man Conquest  about  five  hundred  years  later.  Under 
the  Title  of  ''The  Making  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land," I  have  given  for  twelve  years  a  Course  of 
Lectures  based  upon  the  Sources  and  upon  the  best 
Authorities,  Ancient  and  Modern,  but  put  into  a 
popular  form  and  in  familiar  colloquial  language.  I 
have  delivered  these  Lectures  not  only  to  my  Classes, 
but  to  Summer  Schools  of  Theology,  and  to  other 
more  popular  audiences,  and  have  always  been  asked 
to  publish  them.  When  I  resigned  my  Professorship 
a  few  years  ago,  I  was  asked  by  my  students  and  by 
the  University  authorities  to  retain  a  Special  Lecture- 
ship in  Early  English  Church  History,  which  I  now 
hold.  But,  as  I  am  about  to  retire  altogether,  I  take 
this  method  of  complying  with  the  wishes  of  my  for- 
mer students  and  other  friends. 

In  connection  with  the  Lectures  to  the  Senior  Class 
I  assigned  to  them  Parallel  Readmgs  in  the  best 
books  on  the  subject  —  first  and  foremost,  of  course, 
Bede's  "Ecclesiastical   History  of  the   English  Na- 

vii 


PREFACE 

tion, ' '  and,  as  a  companion  to  that,  * '  The  Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle."  Coming  down  to  the  best  recent  His- 
tories of  this  period,  they  were  expected  to  read  the 
greater  part  of  William  Bright 's  "Chapters  in  Early- 
English  Church  History,"  or  else  the  more  recent 
and  equally  valuable  book  of  William  Hunt  on  ' '  The 
English  Church  from  Its  Foundation  to  the  Norman 
Conquest. ' ' 

Besides  this  reading  on  the  part  of  the  students, 
I  gave  them  in  my  Lectures  much  of  the  cream  of 
these  and  other  valuable  books  in  numerous  Quota- 
tions. And,  as  these  quotations  constitute  the  best 
part  of  the  Lectures,  they  are  incorporated  into  the 
body  of  this  book,  rather  than  consigned  to  the  ob- 
scurity of  foot-notes  or  appendices,  on  the  principle 
that  the  cream  should  be  on  the  top  of  the  milk,  and 
not  at  the  bottom. 

In  addition  to  these  more  formal  Lectures,  in  order 
that  "no  guilty  man  might  escape,"  I  was  always 
giving  what  I  called  "Free  and  Easy  Catechetical 
Lectures ' '  on  the  Text  of  some  good  Text-Book,  Wake- 
man 's  or  Patterson's,  which  the  students  were  ex- 
pected to  study.  By  these  varied  methods  I  tried 
to  make  sure  that  every  student  should  learn  some- 
thing of  English  Church  History,  and  should  acquire 
some  familiarity  with  the  best  Literature  on  the  sub- 
ject. 

These  Lectures  were  not  written  nor  published  for 
learned  scholars,  but  for  intelligent  and  educated 
students  who  have  had  neither  the  time  nor  the  op- 
portunity to  read  the  voluminous  works  of  the  great 

viii 


PREFACE 

Historians.  This  book  is  intended  as  a  popular  In- 
troduction to  the  real  Historians  of  the  Period  treated, 
in  the  hope  that  it  may  serve  as  ''stepping-stones  to 
higher  things"  and  may  tempt  its  readers  to  go  far- 
ther and  fare  better. 

Thomas  Allen  Tidball 
Sewanee,  March  3,  1918. 


IX 


CONTENTS 


LECTURE  PAGE 

I.  A  Prelude  Concerning  the  Old  British 
and  Other  Keltic  Churches  in  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  Before  the  Coming 
of  Augustine 1 

(a)  The   Beginnings   of   the    Church   in 

Britain. 

(b)  The   Beginnings   of   the   Church   in 

Ireland. 

(c)  The   Beginnings   of  the   Church   in 

Scotland. 

II.     The     Coming    of    Augustine,     and    the 

Roman  Mission  to  the  English.  .       41 

III.  The  Coming  of  Aidan,  and  the  Scotch- 

Irish  Mission  to  the  English         .         .       79 

IV.  The  Coming-Together  of  the  Roman  and 
y         the  Scotch-Irish  Missions  to  Make  the 

English  Church.  .         .         .         .109 

V.     The  Coming  of  Theodore,  and  the  Organ- 
ization of  the  Early  English  Church.     136 

VI.     The  Coming  of  the  Danes,  and  the  Ruin 

and  Revival   of  the   English   Church.     168 

VII.  The  Coming  of  the  Normans,  and  the  In- 
crease of  Papal  Power  in  the  English 
Church 199 

xi 


'^ 


A  Prelude  to  the  Making  of  the 

Church  of  England 

I 

The  Old  British  and  Other  Keltic  Churches  in 

Great  Britain  and  Ireland  Before  the 

Coming  of  Augustine 

The  Beginnings  of  the  Church  in  Britain. 

I  am  to  speak  to  you  on  **The  Making  of  the 
Church  of  England."  The  subject  is  one  of  special 
interest  to  Churchmen,  clerical  and  lay,  but  concerns 
also  a  far  larger  circle  than  our  particular  house- 
hold of  faith.  The  history  of  this  Church  is  so 
interwoven  with  the  whole  history  of  England  itself 
that  the  two  studies  cannot  be  separated  without 
serious  loss  to  each.  In  the  introduction  to  the  first 
volume  of  the  largest  and  completest  recent 
** History  of  the  English  Church,'*  edited  by  the 
late  Dean  Stephens  and  the  Rev.  William  Hunt, 
Mr.  Hunt  declares,  ''The  English  Church  has  exer- 
cised a  profound  influence  on  the  history  of  the 
English  people.  It  was  a  principal  agent  in  the 
making  of  the  Nation,  and  has  had  a  strong  effect 
on  its  character  and  institutions.  Without  it  the 
England  of  to-day  would  have  been  other  than  it  is. 
Every  Englishman,  probably  every  one  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  race  and  speech,  be  his  religious   opinions 

[1] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

what  they  may,  owes  something  to  its  influence, 
either  in  the  present  or  the  past.''  But  in  order  to 
understand  aright  the  early  days  of  the  English 
Church  (the  Church  of  the  English  race),  we  must 
go  further  back  to  the  days  of  an  earlier  Church  in 
the  land  conquered  by  the  Anglo-Saxons.  There 
was  a  country  and  a  people  here,  under  the  older 
names  of  Britain  and  the  British,  centuries  before 
there  were  any  English  in  it.  **  There  were  great 
men  here  before  Agamemnon" — good  and  great 
men  before  the  coming  of  Augustine — a  British  and 
other  Keltic  Churches  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 
long  before  the  Jutes,  the  Saxons  and  the  Angles 
landed  upon  these  shores.  The  Genesis  of  this 
earliest  Church,  or  Churches,  must  be  taken  into 
account  in  considering  the  making  of  the  United 
Church  of  England,  which  was  the  ultimate  weld- 
ing together,  by  a  very  long  and  painful  process,  into 
one  National  Church,  of  churches  and  races  once 
distinct  and  hostile. 

The  conversion  of  the  Britons  and  the  Scots  (the 
latter  term  includes  the  Irish)  came  long  before, 
and  that  of  the  Scots  contributed  largely  to,  the 
conversion  of  the  English.  It  is  of  that  earlier 
Christianity  that  I  would  speak  in  this  preliminary 
lecture,  because  of  its  agency  before  and  after 
Augustine 's  time  in  the  evangelization  of  the  British 
Isles,  and  because  of  the  very  large  and  important 
part  which  it  played  in  the  conversion  of  the  English 
themselves. 

Britain  was  first  invaded  by  the  Romans  under 

[2] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

Julius  Caesar  B.  C.  55,  but  did  not  become  a  settled 
Roman  province  till  A.  D.  84  under  Domitian. 
When  the  Romans  took  possession  the  Keltic  people 
whom  they  found  dwelling  here,  and  whom  the 
English  invaders  afterwards  found,  consisted  of 
two  main  divisions  more  or  less  amalgamated — viz.: 
the  Goidels  and  the  Brythons.  Both  were  akin  to 
the  Gauls  (Goidels,  Gaedels,  Gaels,  Gauls).  The 
Goidels,  who  were  the  first  comers,  displaced,  or 
absorbed  the  earlier  Iberian  inhabitants.  The  con- 
quering Goidels  were  themselves  subsequently  con- 
quered by  the  Brythons,  or  Britons,  and  ultimately 
driven  backward  into  the  Western  parts  of  Britain, 
and  across  the  sea  into  Ireland.  "At  present  the 
languages  derived  from  that  of  the  Goidels  are  the 
Gaelic  of  the  Highlands,  the  Manx  of  the  Isle  of 
Man,  and  the  Erse  of  Ireland.  The  only  language 
now  spoken  in  the  British  Isles  which  is  derived 
from  that  of  the  Britons  is  the  Welsh" — (S.  R.  Gar- 
diner). The  Britons  were  ultimately  incorporated 
into  the  Roman  Empire  and  civilization,  but  not  so 
the  Goidels  of  Ireland  and  Scotland.  There  were 
also,  for  long,  different  types  of  Christianity  in  these 
two  divisions  of  the  Keltic  race. 

During  the  centuries  that  Britain  continued  as  a 
province  of  the  Roman  Empire  Christianity  had 
become  widely,  if  somewhat  thinly  and  loosely,  dif- 
fused among  the  Britons.  After  the  retirement  of  the 
Romans  early  in  the  fifth  century  and  the  invasion  by 
the  English,  beginning  about  the  middle  of  that  cen- 
tury, these  ruthless  conquerors  thrust  back  into  the 

[3] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

West  the  surviving  British  Christians,  and  formed  a 
dark  and  dense  mass  of  heathenism  between  the  Cath- 
olic Church  on  the  continent  of  Europe  and  the  Brit- 
ish and  Scotic  Churches  in  the  North  and  West.  The 
latter  were  confined  to  what  is  now  known  as  Corn- 
wall and  Devon,  Wales  and  Cumberland,  Ireland 
and  Scotland.  These  vast  regions  were  subsequently 
untouched  by  the  missionaries  under  Augustine  and 
his  successors,  who  accomplished  the  conversion  of 
the  English  only  in  the  South-East  corner  of  Eng- 
land. Immensely  important  as  the  Roman  Mission 
was  in  laying  the  permanent  foundation  of  the 
Church  of  the  English  race,  we  shall  see  how  insigni- 
ficant might  have  been  their  success,  had  they  not 
been  so  largely  reenforced  by  the  missionary  enthu- 
siasm and  enterprise  of  the  Church  of  the  Scots. 
Next  to  nothing,  indeed,  was  done  by  the  British 
Church  for  the  conversion  of  their  hated  English 
conquerors.  The  times  and  conditions  were  most 
unpropitious  even  had  they  showed  any  desire  to 
undertake  such  work,  and  they  had  no  such  desire. 
But  the  evangelizing  of  the  vast  and  dominant  Eng- 
lish Kingdom  of  Northumbria  from  the  Humber  to 
the  Forth,  and  of  that  other  English  Kingdom  called 
Mercia,  covering  the  whole  middle  of  the  island,  was 
mainly  due  to  the  representatives  of  the  Scotch- 
Irish  Church  from  its  two  great  centres,  lona  and 
Lindisfarne. 

What  can  we  learn  of  the  origin  and  growth  of 
Christianity  among  the  Britons  and  other  Kelts? 

There  are  no  historical  data  for  an  Apostolic  foun- 

[4] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

dation  of  the  Church  in  the  British  Isles.  There  are 
legends  of  St.  Paul,  St.  Peter,  St.  Philip  and  Joseph 
of  Arimathea  preaching  here ;  but  these  are  now  rec- 
ognized by  all  competent  authorities  as  fictions. 
Haddan  and  Stubbs,  after  examining  every  docu- 
ment bearing  on  the  subject,  have  concluded  that 
"statements  respecting  Apostolic  men  preaching  in 
Britain  in  the  first  century  rest  upon  guess,  mis- 
take, or  fable."  It  is,  further,  impossible  to  say 
with  certainty  when,  whence,  or  by  whom  the  Chris- 
tian Church  in  these  islands  was  first  introduced — 
just  as  it  is  impossible  to  say  the  same  of  the  original 
Church  in  Rome.  Foundations  are  generally  out  of 
sight.  Most  probably,  Christianity  came  to  Britain 
first  in  the  person  of  some  converted  Roman  soldier 
or  traveller,  or  of  some  humble  trader  or  rich  civ- 
ilian of  Gaul,  the  nearest  neighbor  on  the  continent 
to  the  Britons  and  their  nearest  kinsfolk.  We  have 
the  Welsh  story  of  Ban  the  Blessed,  the  father  of 
Caractacus  the  captive  British  king,  who  brought 
back  to  his  native  land  the  faith  learned  by  him  in 
his  Roman  prison.  From  the  same  source  we  have 
the  supposed  indentification  of  the  Pudens  and 
Claudia  of  St.  Paul's  2nd  Epistle  to  Timothy  with 
the  Roman  Pudens  and  British-born  Claudia,  daugh- 
ter of  Caractacus  commemorated  in  the  poet  Mar- 
tial 's  verses.  We  have  Bede  's  narrative  of  a  British 
King  named  Lucius  writing  to  Eleutherus,  Bishop 
of  Rome,  a  letter  with  the  Macedonian  cry,  **Come 
and  help  us,"  begging  that  by  the  bishop's  commis- 
sion he  might  be  made  a  Christian,  and  obtaining 

[6] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  fulfilment  of  his  request — ** after  which/'  says 
Bede,  "the  Britons  retained  their  faith,  thus  re- 
ceived inviolate  and  in  tranquil  peace  until  the  times 
of  the  Emperor  Diocletian."  But  these  stories,  with 
all  their  later  embellishments,  are  dismissed  as  base- 
less by  the  most  careful  historians.  We  have  the 
beautiful  and  touching  Mediaeval  Romance  of  Joseph 
of  Arimathea  coming  to  the  Isle  of  Avalon  with 
his  twelve  companions  and  the  two  holy  women, 
Mary  and  Martha,  and  bringing  with  them  the  price- 
less treasure  of  the  Holy  Grail, — and  of  Joseph 
planting  his  staff  there  which  grew  into  the  miracu- 
lous thorn-tree  that  burst  into  blossom  every  Christ- 
mas-day, of  the  land  bestowed  upon  them  by  the 
King  Arviragus,  and  the  simple  Church  of  wattles 
built  thereon  in  honor  of  the  Blessed  Virgin — as 
Tennyson  has  it: 

''That  Joseph  came  of  old  to  Glastonbury, 
And  there  the  heathen  prince  Arviragus 
Gave  him  an  isle  of  marsh  whereon  to  build. 
And  there  he  built  with  wattles  from  the  marsh 
A  little  lonely  church  in  days  of  yore.'* 

But,  alas,  this  lovely  legend  vanishes,  too,  like 
those  of  King  Arthur  under  the  prosaic  touch  of 
historical  criticism,  and  leaves  us  nothing  but  the 
ruined  Abbey  at  Glastonbury  and  its  authentic  and 
not  inglorious  history  reaching  far  back  into  the  dim 
distance  of  early  British  Christianity  in  the  Roman 
time.  But  we  are  getting  on  ground  more  solid 
than  the  misty  marshes  of  Avalon  where  we  come 
to  the  late  Canon  Bright 's  "Early  English  Church 

[6] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

History,"  and  read  his  calm  conclusion  :— *'We  can- 
not reasonably  doubt  that  some  Christians  did  cross 
the  channel  to  our  shore  during  the  second  century, 
if  not  earlier,  and  planted  here  and  there  some  set- 
tlements of  the  Church.  It  was  almost  certainly 
from  Gaul,"  he  says,  ** certainly  not,  as  far  as  we 
can  judge,  directly  from  the  East — that  these  out- 
posts of  the  advancing  spiritual  Kingdom  were  sent 
forth  among  the  Roman  provincials  of  Britain." 
Irenaeus,  who  in  177  was  Bishop  of  Lyons,  one  of 
the  earliest  Christian  foundations  in  the  South  of 
Gaul,  in  naming  all  the  churches  of  the  West  known 
to  his  day,  makes  no  mention  of  any  Church  in 
Britain.  But  very  soon  after  this  date  Christianity 
must  have  taken  root  there  (planted  probably  by 
refugees  from  the  persecution  at  Lyons  and  Vienne 
in  177).  Tertullian,  about  thirty  years  later,  writing 
of  the  wide  spread  of  the  Gospel  in  the  West,  says,  — 
**In  all  parts  of  Spain,  among  the  various  nations  of 
Gaul,  in  districts  of  Britain  inaccessible  to  the 
Romans  but  subdued  to  Christ,  in  all  these  the  king- 
dom and  name  of  Christ  are  venerated."  Origen, 
about  a  generation  later,  writes  to  the  same  effect : — 
"The  power  of  the  Saviour  is  felt  even  among  those 
who  are  divided  from  our  world,  in  Britain." 
**When,  before  the  coming  of  Christ,  did  the  land 
of  Britain  hold  the  belief  in  the  one  God?"  There 
is  a  singular  dearth  of  information  about  the  Church 
in  Britain  during  the  third  century,  due  mainly,  no 
doubt,  to  the  all  but  complete  obliteration  of  British 
history  by  the  barbarity  of  their  Saxon  conquerors. 

[7] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND 

When  we  have  passed  into  the  fourth  century,  we  have 
the  story  of  the  martjrrdom  of  St.  Alban,  c.  304, 
which,  spite  of  some  legendary  matter  mingled  with 
it  in  Bede's  beautiful  narrative,  may  be  regarded  as 
authentic.  It  is  interesting  that  this  proto-martyr 
of  the  British  Church,  Alban,  the  gallant  soldier, 
who  gave  his  life  gladly  for  his  faith  and  for  his 
friend,  is  the  first  instance  in  England  of  a  personal 
name  attached  to  a  Christian  site.  Since  Julius 
Caesar  captured  that  strong-hold  of  the  Britons,  it 
had  been  known  as  Verulamium;  but  After  Alban 's 
death  there  it  was  baptized  with  its  new  name,  ''St. 
Alban 's.''  On  the  ''flower-clad  eminence"  where 
the  Christian  soldier  died  the  British  Christians 
erected  a  church  to  his  memory,  supplanted  after- 
wards by  the  stately  Abbey  Church  which  still 
stands  and  is  now  used  as  an  English  Cathedral. 
However  obscure  the  origin  and  growth  of  the 
Church  in  Britain,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  long 
before  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  it  was  a 
Church  fully  organized  with  its  own  bishops,  pres- 
byters and  deacons,  and  taking  its  proper  part  in  the 
early  councils  of  the  Catholic  Church.  At  the 
council  of  Aries,  314,  the  records  show  the  names  of 
three  bishops  from  Britain — those  of  York,  London, 
and  either  Lincoln  or  Caerleon-on-Usk,  with  the 
names  of  a  presbyter  and  a  deacon  who  attended 
them.  The  records  of  the  council  of  Nicea,  325,  do 
not  show  that  British  bishops  were  present  there; 
but  the  connection  of  Constantine  with  Britain  and 
his  effort  to  make  the  council  as  general  as  possible, 

[8] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

make  it  highly  probable  that  Britain  was  invited. 
Certainly  the  bishops  of  that  country  gave  their 
formal  assent  to  the  decrees  of  this  important 
council  and  those  of  Sardica  in  347,  whether  per- 
sonally present  or  not.  At  the  Council  of  Rimini,  or 
Ariminum,  in  359,  Sulpicius  Severus,  a  Gallic  chroni- 
cler c.  400,  makes  express  mention  of  three  excep- 
tional British  bishops,  who  were  unable  to  pay  their 
own  expenses  and  accepted  an  allowance  for  this 
purpose  from  the  Emperor.  This  fact  may  be  taken, 
I  think,  as  a  fair  indication  that  the  Church  in  these 
islands  was  not  a  strong,  or  wealthy,  or  very  influ- 
ential one.  This  is  confirmed  by  the  dearth  of  mem- 
orials, of  great  buildings,  or  literary  productions, 
or  illustrious  names.  At  Canterbury,  Silchester  and 
a  few  other  places  there  are  some  remains  of 
churches  built  when  Britain  was  still  a  Roman  prov- 
ince. 

British  Christians  are  recognized  abroad  as  hold- 
ing the  true  Catholic  Faith  in  the  time  of  the  tre- 
mendous Arian  struggle.  They  are  congratulated 
by  Hilary,  the  famous  bishop  of  Poitiers  in  358,  on 
their  "freedom  from  all  contagion  of  the  detestable 
heresy. '*  They  were  probably,  under  pressure  from 
the  Emperor,  inveigled  with  their  fellow  bishops  at 
Rimini  into  assenting  temporarily  to  an  uncatholie 
formula.  But  they  soon  returned  to  the  Nicene  stand- 
ard, for  Athanasius  in  363,  writes  of  the  Britons  as 
among  those  *' loyal  to  the  Catholic  Faith.''  Chrys- 
ostom  says,  ''Even  the  British  Isles  have  felt  the 
power   of  the   word,   for  there,  too,   churches  and 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

altars  have  been  erected  —  there  too,  as  in  the  East, 
men  may  be  heard  disputing  points  in  Scripture 
with  differing  voices,  but  not  with  differing  belief/* 
Jerome,  about  395,  to  the  same  effect  declares: — 
*' Britain  worships  the  same  Christ,  observes  the 
same  rule  of  truth"  with  other  Christian  countries. 
He  finds  Britons  among  the  pilgrims  to  Palestine, 
and  says  that  **the  road  to  the  heavenly  hall  stood 
open  from  Britain,  as  well  as  from  Jerusalem." 
The  final  withdrawal  of  the  Roman  government 
from  Britain  in  410,  and  the  disturbed  state  of 
Europe  during  the  Teutonic  migration  left  the 
island  cut  off  from  the  commerce  and  civilization 
of  the  world,  and  its  churchmen  more  isolated  than 
ever.  Many  of  their  leading  members  and  of  the 
most  promising  youth  of  the  country  had  followed 
the  retiring  legions.  Nevertheless  there  were  not 
wanting  about  this  time  signs  of  a  renewed  spiritual 
life  and  of  missionary  enterprise  for  the  conversion 
of  the  Keltic  peoples  in  the  North.  This  appears  par- 
ticularly in  the  mission  inaugurated  by  St.  Ninian 
during  the  last  decade  of  the  fourth  century.  He  was 
a  native  of  Strathclyde  in  North  Britain.  After 
studying  in  Rome  and  receiving  Episcopal  consecra- 
tion from  Pope  Siricius,  he  returned  home  to  become 
a  missionary  bishop  to  his  own  people,  and  on  the 
way  he  seems  to  have  been  profoundly  impressed  by 
a  visit  to  the  famous  teacher,  St.  Martin  of  Tours. 
**To  the  memory  of  this  saint,  as  Bede  relates, 
Ninian  built  a  church,  not  after  the  usual  British 
fashion  of  wood,  but  like  the  Romans,  of  white  stone, 

[10] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

which  became  renowned  as  the  'White  House,'  or 
Whithern.  Here  on  a  promontory  of  Wigton  Bay 
are  still  the  ruins  of  a  Cathedral  crowning  a 
wooded  mound,  representing  what  was  once  em- 
phatically named  'the  Great  Monastery'  and  known 
as  a  centre  of  religious  light  and  thought  for  all 
who  dwelt  along  the  Solway  and  between  the  two 
Roman  walls.  So  it  was  that  in  after  ages  St. 
Ninian  was  commemorated  as  the  instrument  by 
whom  the  'Picts  and  Britons'  had  been  converted  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  faith"   (Bright). 

With  the  opening  of  the  fifth  century  began  the 
great  Pelagian  controversy  in  the  Church  about  the 
sinfulness  of  human  nature  and  the  necessity  of 
Divine  grace  to  overcome  it.  This  is  not  the  place 
to  deal  with  the  doctrinal  questions  at  issue.  But 
Britain  became  conspicuously  identified  with  and 
involved  in  the  controversy,  and  for  the  first  time 
acquired  a  wide  reputation  for  heterodoxy.  The 
story  of  its  connection  with  this  subject  makes  a 
marked  epoch  of  its  ecclesiastical  history.  Pelagius 
himself  was  an  interesting  and  attractive  character 
— a  man  of  great  originality  and  ability.  St.  Augus- 
tine of  Hippo,  his  most  formidable  opponent,  admits 
that  in  personal  life  he  was  "honorable,  earnest, 
chaste  and  commendable ;  a  holy  man  who  had  made 
considerable  progress  in  the  Christian  life,  a  good 
and  praiseworthy  person."  A  good  man  is  the  most 
powerful  advocate  and  most  dangerous  propagan- 
dist of  a  bad  cause.  Now  Pelagius  was,  according  to 
Augustine  and  contemporary  writers  generally,   a 

tu] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

*' Briton."  His  other  chief  antagonist,  St.  Jerome, 
with  less  charity  and  courtesy  than  Augustine,  styles 
him  ''that  big  dog  of  Albion,"  and  *'a  huge  fellow 
stuffed  to  repletion  with  Scotch  porridge" — ''Scotch" 
meant  "Irish"  in  those  days.  He  is  generally  sup- 
posed, however,  to  have  been  a  Welshman  named 
Morgan  (sea-born),  the  synonym  of  his  Greek  name 
Pelagius.  It  is  quite  certain  that  he  was  a  native  of 
the  British  Isles,  but  had  left  them  before  he  became 
famous  and  never  returned  thither.  He  was  some- 
w^hat  of  a  rover,  geographically  as  well  as  theolog- 
ically, propagating  his  views  in  Rome  and  Carthage 
and  Palestine.  We  first  hear  of  him  prominently  in 
Rome,  at  which  fountain-head  of  orthodoxy  he  ap- 
pears to  have  picked  up  his  pet  heresy,  with  the  as- 
sistance of  an  Irishman  named  Coelestius  and  a 
Syrian  named  Rufinus.  His  errors  were  powerfully 
refuted  by  Sts.  Augustine  and  Jerome,  condemned 
by  numerous  councils  and  not  condemned  by  others. 
He  was  strongly  condemned  by  the  Pope  Innocent, 
and  as  strongly  commended  for  a  while  as  a  sound 
Catholic  by  the  succeeding  Pope  Zosimus — the  first 
who  claimed  to  "inherit  from  St.  Peter  divine  au- 
thority equal  to  that  of  St.  Peter."  But  popes  were 
not  as  terrible  nor  as  infallible  in  those  days  as 
later,  and,  spite  of  Zosimus  standing  sponsor  for 
Pelagius,  214  bishops  in  council  at  Carthage  anathe- 
matized his  views  and  Pelagius  was  banished  by  the 
Emperors,  and  Zosimus,  the  first  heretical  pope,  was 
scared  into  orthodoxy.    So  much  for  the  heresiarch 

[12] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

abroad.    Now  look  at  the  story  of  Pelagianism  in  his 
native  land.    Its  chief  propagator  here  was  named 
Agricola,  son,  we  are  told,  of  Severianus,  a  Gallican 
bishop.  Gaul  had  caught  the  contagion  from  Italy 
and  communicated  it  to  her  neighbor  Britain.    Agri- 
cola  seems  to  have  found  the  British  soil  open  to  the 
sowing   of  his  seed,  and  Pelagianism   grew   apace 
among  his  own  countrjnnen.     The  infection  spread 
rapidly,  and  there  was  no  doctor  there  equal  to  its 
cure.     The  Church  had  just  lost  many  of  its  best 
and  most  influential  men  by  the  withdrawal  of  the 
Romans.     For  lack   of  leaders   competent  to   deal 
with  theological  subtleties,  they  called  in  the  help 
of  their  better-equipped  brethen  in  Gaul.    The  Gal- 
lican Church  promptly  commissioned,  possibly  with 
the  Pope's  backing,  two  of  their  notable  bishops, 
Germanus  of  Auxerre  and  Lupus  of  Troyes,  to  meet 
the  emergency.     The  story  is  told  by  Const  ant  ius, 
the  contemporary  of  Germanus.    Arriving  in  Britain 
these  prelates  made  a  grand  tour  of  the  country'- 
about  429  A.  D.    They  carried  on  a  vigorous  crusade 
against  the  heretics,   a  sort  of  preaching  mission, 
in  churches  and  streets   and  fields,   wherever  they 
could  best  gather  the  clergy  and  the  people.    Their 
mission  culminated  in  a  notable  public  debate  with 
the  Pelagians,  probably  at  Verulam,  in  which,  be- 
fore   a    vast    audience    the    latter    were    completely 
worsted.    Then  the  victorious  bishops  made  a  pious 
pilgrimage  to  the  neighboring  tomb  of  St.  Alban, 
depositing  sacred  relics  at  his  shrine  and  carrying 

[13] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

away  some  of  the  earth  consecrated  by  the  martyr's 
blood.  During  the  ensuing  Lent  they  revived  the 
Church  by  their  earnest  preaching,  and  won  many 
converts,  baptizing  them  on  Easter  Eve  and  cele- 
brating a  joyous  Easter  with  their  new  converts. 
But  their  sacred  mission  was  rudely  interrupted  by 
a  sudden  descent  upon  the  Britons  of  their  old  ene- 
mies the  Picts  and  the  more  formidable  Saxons.  The 
good  bishops  were  equal  to  this  emergency  also,  and 
appear  to  have  had  military  prowess  equal  to  their 
theological.  By  the  counsel  and  strategy  of  St.  Ger- 
manus  an  ambush  was  prepared  for  the  enemy,  and, 
when  they  came  on  confident  of  an  easy  triumph, 
the  carefully  concealed  Britons  suddenly  arose  from 
their  hiding-place,  and,  fresh  from  the  baptismal 
laver  of  regeneration,  with  one  mighty  voice  shouted 
three  times  their  Easter  "Alleluia'*  till  the  earth 
rang  with  the  thunderous  sound,  and  their  panic- 
stricken  assailants,  without  striking  a  blow,  fled 
from  the  field  of  Maes-Garmon  ("German's  field"). 
This  bloodless  triumph  became  famous  in  Britain 
and  Gaul  as  the  "Alleluia  Victory."  At  a  later  time, 
about  447,  we  are  told  that  Germanus  repeated  his 
visit  to  the  British  Church  to  reclaim  those  who  had 
relapsed  into  Pelagianism,  bringing  as  his  com- 
panion this  time  Severus,  bishop  of  Treves.  Such 
signal  services  greatly  endeared  him  to  the  people, 
and  various  churches  and  schools  were  dedicated 
to  him,  including  the  Cathedral  on  the  Isle  of  Man, 
whose  ruins  still  stand  at  the  entrance  to  Peel  Harbor. 

[14] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

The  Beginnings  of  the  Church  in  Ireland, 

It  is  time  to  turn  our  attention  to  the  Beginnings 
of  Christianity  in  others  parts  of  the  British  Isles. 
If  the  British  Church  failed  entirely  in  its  duty  to- 
wards the  conversion  of  their  English  conquerors, 
they  were  not  wanting  in  missionary  efforts  among 
the  neighboring  and  kindred  peoples  in  the  coun- 
tries now  known  as  Ireland  and  Scotland.  It  is 
worthy  of  note  that  at  the  very  time  when  the  Eng- 
lish invaders  were  threatening  to  obliterate  Chris- 
tianity in  Britain  itself,  Patrick,  a  North  British 
missionary,  was  successfully  planting  it  in  Ireland. 
We  have  already  seen  how  Ninian  had  established 
himself  in  Galloway,  and,  working  his  way  north- 
ward to  the  Grampians,  had  preached  to  the  South- 
ern Picts,  *'a  people  that  had  more  hair  on  their 
faces  than  clothes  on  their  bodies."  His  ''White 
House"  at  Whithern  became  a  centre  of  learning 
and  religious  influence  not  only  in  this  part  of  the 
Roman  province,  but  even  reached  across  the  sea 
into  Ireland,  which  had  never  come  under  the  imperial 
rule.  Ireland,  then  called  ''Scotia,"  was  the  original 
home  of  the  Scots,  who  subsequently  colonized  in 
"Caledonia,"  or  "Alban,"  where  they  became  the 
dominant  people.  But  this  new  home  of  theirs  was 
not  called  "Scotland"  until  about  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury. Ninian,  after  his  labors  among  the  Picts,  is 
related  to  have  emigrated  to  Ireland,  where  he  was 
known  as  Monen — "My  Ninian." 

It  is  very  difficult,  indeed,  to  disentangle  the  true 

[16] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND 

history  of  St.  Patrick  from  the  bewildering  mass  of 
legends  and  controversies,  with  which  it  has  become 
almost  hopelessly  involved. 

The  latest  scholarly  life  of  St.  Patrick,  and  proba- 
bly the  most  impartial,  based  upon  a  critical  exam- 
ination of  the  original  sources  and  the  whole  Patri- 
cian literature,  has  recently  been  published  (1905) 
by  G.  B.  Bury,  professor  of  Modern  History  in  the 
University  of  Cambridge.  The  only  authentic  writ- 
ings of  Patrick,  generally  accepted,  are  his  famous 
** Confession, ' '  and  his  ''Letter  against  Coroticus,*' 
a  ruler  of  Strathclyde  in  North  Britain.  The  ''Con- 
fession" is  preserved  in  the  most  valuable  "Book  of 
Armagh  "^ — a  beautiful  manuscript  of  the  ninth  cen- 
tury— in  the  Library  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin, 
along  with  other  Patrician  documents.  Among 
these  are  a  few  "Dicta,"  or  "Sayings  of  Patrick," 
the  earliest  "Memoirs  of  Patrick,"  by  Bishop  Tire- 
chan  of  the  Seventh  Century,  and  the  first  formal 
"Biography  of  Patrick,"  by  Muirchu  towards  the  end 
of  the  Seventh  Century.  There  are  also  Irish  "An- 
nals," which  supply  material  for  history  back  to  the 
fifth  century,  full  of  interesting  legends,  but  of  slight 
historical  value. 

The  so-called  "Confession"  of  St.  Patrick  is  a 
sort  of  Apologia  pro  vita  sua,  written  shortly  before 
his  death.  It  tells  us  very  little  of  his  outer  life,  but 
reveals  the  wonderful  dealings  of  God  within  his 
inmost  soul.  In  contrast  with  the  myriad  miracles 
recorded  by  his  biographers,  the  one  miracle  which 
he  mentions  is  the  Almighty  Grace  of  God,  which 

[16] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

called  and  endowed  a  weak,  sinful,  and  unlearned 
man  for  the  marvellous  work  which  he  accomplished. 
His  answer  to  all  his  enemies  and  detractors  was 
virtually  the  same  as  St.  Paul's,  *'I  am  the  least  of 
the  Apostles,  that  am  not  meet  to  be  called  an 
Apostle.  But  by  the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am; 
and  His  grace  which  was  bestowed  upon  me  was  not 
in  vain;  but  I  labored  more  abundantly  than  they 
all ;  yet  not  I,  but  the  grace  of  God  which  was  with 
me.'' 

Patrick  was  a  Roman  citizen  of  Britain,  born  in 
a  village  named  Bannaventa,  which  has  not  been 
certainly  identified.  His  father,  Calpemius,  was  a 
small  land  owner,  and  a  decurion,  or  member  of  the 
Roman  town-council,  and  also  a  Christian  Deacon,  as 
his  father  Potitus  had  been  a  Christian  Presbyter. 
The  British  name  of  the  future  Apostle  of  Ireland 
was  Sucat ;  but,  like  his  father  and  grand-father,  he 
was  best  known  by  his  Roman  name — Patricius.  He 
was  probably  born  about  389,  and  brought  up  as  a 
Christian;  but  he  speaks  of  himself  as  "most  rustic 
and  unlearned,"  and  bitterly  laments  some  serious 
sin  of  his  youth.  He  had  reached  the  age  of  sixteen 
when  a  fleet  of  Irish  freebooters  landed  in  his  native 
town,  and  Patrick  and  his  sister  were  among  the 
captives  carried  away  to  what  he  calls  'Hhe  ulti- 
mate places  of  the  earth,"  so  far  off  did  barbar- 
ous Ireland  seem  to  a  Roman  citizen  of  Britain.  Ac- 
cording to  his  own  story,  he  became  the  unhappy 
slave  of  a  hard  master  who  dwelt  near  the  wood  of 
Fochlad  "nigh  to  the  Western  Sea" — a  wild  and 

[17] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

desolate  region  in  North-Western  Connaught — who 
''sent  him  into  the  fields  to  feed  swine."  Here,  like 
the  Prodigal  Son,  "he  came  to  himself,"  and  came 
to  God.  He  describes  fully  this  conversion,  which 
profoundly  affected  his  whole  subsequent  career. 
He  tells  us  also  of  the  visions  and  voices  which  prom- 
ised him  deliverance  from  his  servitude.  In  obedi- 
ence thereto  he  made  his  escape,  and,  after  many 
perils  over  land,  reached  the  nearest  port  (probably 
Wicklow),  and  found  **the  ship  of  his  dreams."  He 
was  reluctantly  allowed  by  the  rough  heathen  crew 
to  work  his  passage  to  an  unknown  port,  which  they 
reached  in  three  days.  Then,  for  two  months  of 
dreadful  hardship,  he  toiled  through  a  dreary  wild- 
erness until  he  made  his  escape  from  his  new  mas- 
ters. **  Though  Patrick  does  not  mention  the  scene 
of  his  journey  in  the  narrative  which  he  left  behind 
him,  he  used  to  tell  his  disciples  how  he  had  "the 
fear  of  God  in  his  journey  through  Gaul  to  Italy" 
("Dicta").  It  was  in  Italy,  then,  we  must  suppose, 
that  he  succeeded  in  escaping  from  them"  (Bury).  I 
can  only  give  a  brief  summary  of  Bury's  main  con- 
clusions as  to  the  subsequent  career  of  Patrick  prior 
to  his  mission  to  Ireland,  based  upon  a  critical  exam- 
ination of  the  oldest  sources.  The  first  episode  of 
his  escape  in  Italy  was  his  sojourn  for  some  years 
in  the  famous  Island-Monastery  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean, Lerinus  (or  Lerins)  founded  by  Honoratus  in 
the  fourth  century,  one  of  the  most  influential  seats 
of  religion  and  learning  in  Southern  Gaul.  Lerins 
became  associated  with  some  of  the  most  illustrious 

[18] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

leaders  of  Western  Christendom.  Here,  then,  we 
may  suppose,  was  Patrick's  first  initiation  into  mon- 
astic life  at  its  best.  But  his  real  mission  was  not 
made  known  to  him,  until  he  left  Lerins  to  visit  his 
kinsfolk  in  Britain.  His  surviving  relatives,  he  tells 
us,  received  him  "as  a  son,"  and  they  implored  him 
Qot  to  leave  them  again.  But  Patrick  was  soon  to 
learn  here  in  his  old  home  that  the  work  of  his  life 
lay  far  hence  among  the  heathen.  In  a  vision  of 
the  night,  as  he  describes  it  in  his  "Confession," 
there  stood  before  him  a  man  named  Victoricus — 
like  St.  Paul's  Man  of  Macedonia — fresh  from  Ire- 
land with  a  bundle  of  letters  in  his  hand,  "And  he 
gave  me  one  of  these,  and  I  read  the  beginning  of 
the  letter,  which  contained  the  'Voice  of  the  Irish.' 
And,  as  I  read  the  beginning  of  it,  I  fancied  that  I 
heard  the  voice  of  the  folk  who  were  near  the  wood 
of  Fochlad,  nigh  to  the  Western  Sea.  And  this  was 
the  cry:  'We  pray  thee,  holy  youth,  to  come  again 
and  walk  among  us  as  before.'  I  was  pierced  to  the 
heart  and  could  read  no  more,  and  thereupon  I 
awoke."  St.  Patrick  was  not  disobedient  to  the 
heavenly  vision.  But,  in  spite  of  his  fiery  zeal  for 
God,  he  was  not  a  fanatic  who  rushed  rashly  into 
so  great  a  work  without  proper  preparation,  and 
without  the  backing  and  commission  of  influential 
authorities  in  the  Church.  The  evidence  shows  that 
he  shortly  retired  to  Gaul,  and  was  located  in  Aux- 
erre,  a  city  which  seems  to  have  had  very  close  rela- 
tions with  the  British  Church.  Its  bishop,  then,  was 
a  famous  man,  Amator,  by  whom  Patrick  was  or- 

[IB] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

dained  Deacon.  As  some  fourteen  years  seem  to 
have  passed  before  he  set  out  for  Ireland,  he 
must  have  encountered  serious  impediments  and 
even  opposition.  Meanwhile  Germanus  had  suc- 
ceeded Amator  as  Bishop  of  Auxerre,  had  visited 
Britain  and  rendered  signal  service  by  putting  down 
Pelagianism  and  strengthening  the  British  Chris- 
tians. This  work  of  Germanus  had  the  direct  sanc- 
tion of  Celestine,  Bishop  of  Rome.  We  are  told  that 
there  was  another  deacon,  more  eminent  at  this  time 
than  Patrick,  associated  with  Germanus.  His  name 
was  Palladius,  and  he  seems  to  have  been  instru- 
mental in  inducing  Pope  Celestine  to  send  Germanus 
on  his  special  mission  to  Britain.  Now  there  is  good 
authority  for  the  statement  that  this  same  Palladius 
was  the  first  bishop  sent  to  organize  the  Christians 
already  in  Ireland.  Prosper  of  Aquitaine,  who  was 
a  contemporary  writer  and  intimately  associated 
with  Rome,  relates  in  his  ''Chronicle"  that  ''Pope 
Celestine  sent  Palladius  to  the  Scots  (i.  e.,  Irish) 
believing  in  Christ."  This  was  in  the  year  431. 
Bede  says  the  same.  But  this  mission  of  Palladius 
to  Ireland  seems  to  have  come  to  an  end  within  a 
year  by  his  death,  and  the  best  opinion  is  that  in 
the  year  432  Patrick  took  his  place,  being  consecrated 
as  bishop  by  Germanus,  probably  with  the  Pope's 
approval.  And  so  at  last,  through  much  tribulation 
and  disappointment  and  opposition,  "the  man  and 
the  hour  arrived."  The  long  desire  of  Patrick  was 
realized,  and  he  became  the  real  Apostle  of  the 
Irish.    The  tradition  is  that  Patrick  had  already  set 

[20] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

out  from  Auxerre  to  work  under  Palladius,  when 
the  news  reached  Gaul  that  the  bishop,  Palladius, 
was  dead.  Patrick  seems  to  have  landed,  like  Palla- 
dius, at  Wicklow,  and  to  have  worked  his  way 
northward  towards  the  land  of  his  former  captivity. 
His  work  in  Ireland  probably  lasted  for  about 
thirty  years,  and  covered  a  great  part  of  the 
island,  but  particularly  the  North.  The  actual 
details  of  his  travels  and  toils  have  been  well-nigh 
overwhelmed  by  the  luxuriant  imagination  of  his 
later  biographers.  But  the  main  features  of  his 
labors  and  success  have  been  rescued  by  sober  his- 
torical criticism,  and  show  that  this  first  great  mis- 
sionary of  the  British  race  and  true  Apostle  of  Ire- 
land was  indeed  a  very  remarkable  man.  I  shall 
not  atempt  to  go  into  the  details  of  his  abundant 
labors. 

Among  the  long  and  bitter  controversies  concern- 
ing Patrick's  career,  no  small  part  of  it  has  to  do 
with  his  relation  to  the  Roman  See.  Much  more  im- 
portance has  attached  to  this  question  than  it  deserves. 
But  I  will  give  Bury's  calm  conclusion.  He  finds 
evidence  for  one  visit  of  Patrick  to  Rome  about  the 
year  441  in  two  ancient  records, — one  in  the 
'' Annals," — the  other  in  Tirechan's  ''Life  of  the 
Saint."  The  statement  in  the  ''Annals"  is:  "Leo  is 
ordained  Bishop  of  the  Roman  Church;  Bishop  Pat- 
rick is  approved  in  the  Catholic  Faith."  "Such  ap- 
proval," he  says,  "might  have  come  in  the  shape 
of  a  formal  epistle  from  the  Roman  bishop  to  the 
bishop  of  Ireland.    But,  when  we  find  in  our  seventh 

[21] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

century  authority,  Tirechan,  a  statement  that  **  Pat- 
rick was  in  Rome  accompanied  by  Sachellus,*'  and 
when  we  find  that  in  his  time  there  were  relics  of 
Peter  and  Paul  and  other  martyrs  procured  by 
Saint  Patrick,  we  may  venture  to  combine  these 
testimonies,  and  conclude  that  Patrick  did  visit 
Rome  in  the  beginning  of  Leo's  Pontificate."  "Pat- 
rick," he  continues,  *'had  been  eight  years  in  Ire- 
land when  a  greater  than  Celestine  or  Xystus  was 
elected  to  the  See  of  Rome.  The  Pontificate  of  Leo 
the  Great  marks  an  eminent  station  in  the  progress 
of  the  Roman  bishops  to  that  commanding  position 
which  they  were  ultimately  to  occupy  in  Eur- 
ope. ...  It  was  in  the  year  after  his  elevation  that 
Patrick,  according  to  the  conclusion  to  which  our 
evidence  points,  betook  himself  to  Rome.  No  step 
could  have  been  more  natural,  and  none  could  have 
been  more  politic.  ...  To  report  the  success  of  his 
labors  to  the  head  of  the  western  churches,  of  which 
Ireland  was  the  youngest,  to  enlist  his  personal  sym- 
pathy, to  gain  his  formal  approbation,  his  moral 
support  and  his  advice,  were  objects  which  would 
well  repay  a  visit  to  Rome,  and  an  absence  of  some 
length  from  Ireland.  .  .  .  But  it  is  possible  that  he 
may  have  had  a  more  particular  motive,  which  may 
explain  why  he  chose  just  this  time  for  his  visit. 
Hitherto,  active  in  different  parts  of  the  island,  he 
had  established  no  central  seat,  no  primatial  or  met- 
ropolitan church  for  the  chief  bishop.  Not  long 
after  his  return,  he  founded  the  Church  of  Armagh, 
fixing  his  own  See  there,  and  establishing  it  as  the 

[22] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

primatial  church.  This  was  a  step  of  the  highest 
importance  in  the  progress  of  ecclesiastical  organiz- 
ation, and  it  is  not  a  very  daring  conjecture  to  sup- 
pose that  Patrick  may  have  wished  to  consult  the 
Roman  bishop  concerning  this  design  and  obtain 
his  approbation.  .  .  .  He  may  well  have  received 
practical  advice  from  Leo — such  advice  as  a  later 
pontiff  gave  to  Augustine  for  the  conversion  of  the 
English." 

As  St.  Patrick's  end  drew  near,  he  seems  to  have 
retired  from  his  Metropolitan  See  at  Armagh,  ap- 
pointing his  disciple  Benignus  as  his  successor  there, 
and  to  have  returned  to  the  scene  of  his  earliest 
labors  beside  Strangford  Lough.  Here  he  died  at 
Saul  near  Downpatrick,  and  here,  at  the  site  of  the 
present  Cathedral,  he  was  buried  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  461.  ''Judged  by  what  he  actually  accom- 
plished," it  has  been  said,  ''he  must  be  placed  among 
the  most  efficient  of  those  who  took  part  in  spread- 
ing the  Christian  faith  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  He  was  endowed  in  abundant  mea- 
sure with  the  quality  of  enthusiasm,  and  stands  in 
quite  a  different  rank  from  the  Apostle  of  England, 
in  whom  this  victorious  energy  of  enthusiasm  was 
lacking,  Augustine,  the  messenger  and  instrument 
of  Gregary  the  Great.  Patrick  was  no  more  messen- 
ger or  instrument.  He  had  a  strong  personality  and 
the  power  of  initiative;  he  depended  on  himself,  or, 
as  he  would  have  said  on  Divine  guidance." 

Among  the  many  treasures  of  the  wonderful 
"Book  of  Armagh"  is  an  Irish  Hymn   (the  oldest 

[23] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

monument  of  the  Irish-Keltic  language)  called  *'S. 
Patricii  Canticum  Scotticum,"  which  Patrick  is 
said  to  have  composed  when  he  went  to  convert  the 
chief  king  of  the  island,  Laoghaire  at  Tara.  This 
Hymn  was  current  before  the  ninth  century  as 
Patrick's,  and  may  have  been  composed  by  him.  It 
is  generally  known  as  the  **Lorica  of  S.  Patrick" — 
in  Irish  *'Faeth  Fiada,"  or  the  '* Deer's  Cry." 

I  can  hardly  close  this  sketch  of  the  Irish  saint 
better  than  by  quoting  the  closing  part  of  the  Hymn 
in  the  verse  translation  of  the  Irish  poet,  Clarence 
Mangan,  ''which  preserves  in  a  wonderful  manner 
the  time  and  spirit  of  the  original"  (Dr.  Todd). 

' '  May  Christ,  I  pray, 
Protect  me  to-day 
Against  poison  and  fire. 
Against  drowning  and  wounding, 
That  so,  in  His  grace  abounding, 
I  may  earn  the  preacher's  hire. 

Christ,  as  a  Light, 

Illumine  and  guide  me! 

Christ,  as  a  shield,  o  'ershadow  and  cover  me ! 

Christ  be  under  me!     Christ  be  over  me! 

Christ  be  beside  me 

On  left  hand  and  right! 
Christ  be  before  me,  behind  me,  about  me! 
Christ  this  day  be  within  and  without  me! 

Christ  the  lowly  and  meek, 

Christ  the  all-powerful,  be 

In  the  heart  of  each  to  whom  I  speak. 

In  the  mouth  of  each  who  speaks  to  me ! 

In  all  who  draw  near  me, 

Or  see  or  hear  me. 

[24] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

At  Tara  today,  in  this  awful  hour, 

I  call  on  the  Holy  Trinity! 
Glory   to   Him   Who    reigneth   in   power, 
The  God  of  the  Elements,  Father  and  Son, 
And  Paraclete-Spirit,  which  Three  are  the  One. 

The  Everlasting  Divinity! 

Salvation  dwells  with  the  Lord, 

"With   Christ,  the   Omnipotent  Word, 

From  generation  to  generation, 

Grant  us,  0  Lord,  Thy  grace  and  salvation." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  truth  of  the  state- 
ment that  '^Patrick's  achievements  as  organizer  of  a 
Church  and  as  propagator  of  his  faith  made  Christian- 
ity a  living  force  in  Ireland  which  could  never  be 
extinguished."  After  his  death,  probably  in  the 
year  461,  we  find  a  vast  number  of  churches  and 
monasteries  which  made  Ireland  famous  in  the  next 
century  as  ''the  Island  of  Saints"  and  ''the  Mother 
of  a  race  of  missionaries."  His  system,  like  that  of 
Gaul  where  he  learned  it,  centred  in  its  wonderful 
monasteries,  which  fairly  girdled  the  land  like  out- 
posts and  camps  of  a  Christian  army  in  an  enemy's 
country.  But  there  were  some  marked  peculiarities 
about  the  later  development  of  this  system  on  eccen- 
tric lines  which  Patrick  would  hardly  have  ap- 
proved. The  later  Irish  Church  had  no  Diocesan 
Episcopacy  at  all,  as  Patrick  seems  to  have  estab- 
lished, and  as  we  find  in  Britain  and  everywhere 
else.  There  were  many  bishops,  however,  too  many 
indeed.  But  these,  while  conferring  Holy  Orders 
and  discharging  the  offices  peculiar  to  the  Episco- 

[25] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

pate,  were  no  longer  the  heads  and  rulers  of  the 
ecclesiastical  centres.  They  were  subject  to  the 
Abbot,  generally  a  Presbyter,  who  presided  over  and 
ruled  the  monasteries.  Nor  need  we  wonder  at  this 
unique  method  of  government  which  came  to  char- 
acterize the  Church  of  the  Scots,  first  in  Ireland  and 
subsequently  in  Scotland,  when  we  remember  that 
these  countries  were  mostly  Christianized  at  the 
very  time  when  they  were  almost  cut  off  from  Rome 
and  Western  Christendom  generally — when  Britain 
herself  was  gradually  overwhelmed  by  the  invasion 
of  the  heathen  English.  This  ecclesiastical  isolation 
goes  far  to  explain  the  notable  differences  of  usage 
which  characterized  the  Scotch-Irish  missionaries 
when  they  afterwards  came  into  contact  and  colli- 
sion with  those  from  Rome.  The  Scotic  system,  how- 
ever, if  rude  and  irregular,  was  not  ill-suited  to  their 
tribal  organization  and  to  the  social  and  religious 
needs  of  the  time  and  the  people. 

After  the  death  of  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Irish, 
religion  naturally  declined  for  a  while,  but  seems 
to  have  regained  much  of  its  pristine  power  by 
coming  into  closer  connection  with  the  surviving 
British  churchmen  in  Wales,  receiving  thence  its 
Liturgy,  and  renewing  its  life  under  the  leadership 
of  the  Welsh  teachers,  David,  Gildas  and  Cadoc. 
From  them  and  their  famous  schools  came  what  is 
called  ''the  Second  Order  of  Irish  Saints,"  and  the 
founders  of  similar  and  even  greater  schools  in  Ire- 
land. It  was  these  later  Irish  saints  and  scholars 
who  sent  forth  that  wonderful  succession  of  mission- 

[26] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

ary  leaders,  who  carried  their  fiery  zeal  to  Gaul,  to 
Germany,  to  Switzerland,  to  Italy,  and  even  to  the 
far-off  Faroe  Islands  and  Iceland.  It  was  these  men 
that  kept  Christianity  alive  and  aggressive  in  the 
North  and  Northwest  when  the  irruption  of  the 
Teutonic  barbarians  southward  overwhelmed  for  a 
while  the  civilized  world.  From  these  came  St.  Col- 
umban  the  Apostle  of  Burgundy,  St.  Gall,  his  pupil 
the  Apostle  of  Switzerland,  Fridoline  the  Apostle  of 
Swabia  and  Alsace,  Truidpert  of  the  Black  Forest, 
Killian  of  Franconia,  and  St.  Columba  the  Apostle  of 
Scotland,  whose  successors  not  only  converted  Scot- 
land, but  shared  so  largely  with  the  followers  of  St. 
Augustine,  the  Roman,  in  the  conversion  of  England 
and  the  English. 

The  Beginnings  of  the  Church  in  Scotland. 

Let  us  now  cross  over  again  from  Ireland  to  Scot- 
land, and  witness  the  beginning  and  advance  of 
Christianity  in  that  country.  The  work  of  its  first 
evangelist,  St.  Ninian,  was  followed  up  by  St.  Kenti- 
gem,  called  also  St.  Mungo,  known  as  the  Apostle  of 
Strathclyde.  He  was  consecrated  to  the  Episcopate 
by  an  Irish  bishop  about  550,  and  established  his 
humble  See  at  Cathures,  now  Glasgow,  becoming 
thereby  the  founder  of  the  future  cathedral  and  city. 
After  a  considerable  period  of  pioneer  work  in  this 
region,  Kentigern  retired  for  a  while  to  Wales  and 
became  the  head  of  a  vast  monastery  on  the  river 
Blwy,  where  he  was  succeeded    by    his    pupil    St. 

[27] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Asaph,  the  founder  of  the  future  Welsh  Cathedral 
of  that  name.  Returning  to  Strathclyde  about  the 
year  573  with  a  band  of  his  pupils,  Kentigern  re- 
sumed his  labors  with  increased  zeal  and  success 
until  his  aged  body  was  laid  to  rest  beside  the  altar 
of  his  rude  cathedral,  which  perpetuates  his  memory 
so  dear  to  the  Scots.  Thus  an  entering  wedge 
into  the  land  of  the  pagan  Picts  had  opened  the  way 
for  the  far  more  auspicious  mission  of  Scotland's 
great  apostle,  St.  Columba. 

We  are  more  fortunate  in  having  the  materials  for 
an  authentic  life  of  Columba  than  in  the  cases  of 
Patrick,  Ninian  and  Kentigern.  These  are  found 
mainly  in  the  **Life  of  Columba,"  by  Adamnan, 
which  its  learned  editor,  the  late  Bishop  Reeves  of 
Down,  calls  **an  inestimable  literary  relic  of  the 
Irish  Church — the  most  valuable  of  that  institution 
which  has  escaped  the  ravages  of  time."  This 
Adamnan  was  the  ninth  Abbot  of  the  Monastery  of 
lona  in  a  rapid  succession  from  Columba  (679-704). 
He  was  bom  within  a  generation  of  the  saint's 
death,  and  wrote  his  Memoir  within  a  century  of 
that  event.  He  wrote  at  lona  the  fountain-head, 
where  he  spent  many  years,  and  had  the  opportunity 
of  conversing  with  those  who  had  known  Columba 
personally.  Adamnan  had  access  to  all  the  mater- 
ials, oral  and  written,  which  the  island  could  fur- 
nish. I  may  add  that  we  are  fortunate  also  in  having 
two  such  recent  explorers  of  this  field  as  the  late  Irish 
bishop  of  Down,  Dr.  Reeves,  and  the  French  Count 
de  Montalembert  in  his  ''Monks  of  the  West."  For 

[28] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

popular  sketches  of  St.  Columba,  the  late  Professor 
Stokes's,  ''Ireland  and  the  Keltic  Church,"  and  the 
late  Bishop  Dowden's,  *'The  Keltic  Church  in  Scot- 
land," leave  little  to  be  desired.  I  have  drawn  from 
all  of  these. 

Columba,  unlike  Patrick,  was  an  Irishman  by  race 
and  birth  and  education.  He  was  bom  at  Gartan  in 
Donegal,  December  7th,  521,  and  was  of  the  famous 
clan  of  the  O'Donnells.  He  was  of  the  bluest  Irish 
blood  on  both  sides  of  the  house,  being  the  great- 
great-grandson  of  Niall,  the  High  King  of  Ireland. 
He  was  probably  baptized  with  two  names  of  oppos- 
ite significance — Crinthann,  a  "wolf,"  and  Columba, 
a  ''dove."  The  former  name  was  fitly  dropped 
when  he  dropped  his  war-like,  and  perhaps,  wolf- 
like, feats  in  Ireland  to  become  the  devoted  Christian 
Evangelist  of  Scotland.  For  his  education,  he  seems 
to  have  first  attended  a  monastic  school  of  Bishop 
Finnian  of  Moville,  who  had  himself  been  a  pupil  in 
the  North  British  school  founded  by  Ninian  at  Whit- 
hern.  Here  he  was  ordained  Deacon.  We  next  hear  of 
him  as  associated  with  a  mere  secular  sort  of  teacher, 
Gemman,  who  was  a  "Bard,"  one  of  the  num- 
erous professional  poets  and  national  chroniclers  of 
Erin.  Three  Latin  Hymns,  and  several  Irish  poems 
have  been  preserved,  which  are  attributed  to  Col- 
umba with  better  reason  than  the  Hymns  ascribed 
to  Patrick.  But  more  important  than  either  of 
these  earlier  teachers  in  the  education  of  Columba 
was  the  illustrious  monastic  school  of  Clonard, 
founded  by  another  Finnian  in  the  beginning  of  the 

[29] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

sixth  century,  who  had  studied  in  the  South  British 
school  at  Menevia  in  Wales  under  St.  David.  Clon- 
ard  is  said  to  have  had  as  many  as  3,000  students 
at  once.  ''From  the  school  of  Clonard,"  says  Arch- 
bishop Usher,  "scholars  of  old  came  out  in  as  great 
numbers  as  Greek's  from  the  side  of  the  horse  at 
Troy."  Here,  then,  in  this  notable  seat  of  learning, 
Columba  was  a  pupil  for  some  years,  and  during 
this  time  he  was  ordained  Priest.  There  is  a  curious 
old  story  that  Finnian,  who  was  only  a  presbyter 
himself,  wanted  a  resident  bishop  in  his  monastery, 
selected  Columba  and  sent  him  to  a  neighboring 
bishop  named  Etchen,  who  was  found  ploughing  in 
the  field,  and  that  this  agricultural  prelate,  whose 
mind  then  was  mostly  on  his  plough,  by  mistake  or- 
dained him  only  presbyter.  Certainly  Columba  re- 
mained only  a  presbyter  for  life,  even  after  he 
became  head  of  the  monastery  at  lona.  In  this 
respect  he  was  followed  by  his  successors  there,  and 
in  the  numerous  daughter-monasteries  subject  there- 
to, it  being  regarded  "as  unbecoming  that  any  of  his 
successors  should  profess  a  higher  dignity  than  their 
great  patron."  Columba,  who,  like  the  later  School- 
men, seems  to  have  gone  the  round  of  the  chief  seats 
of  learning  accessible,  is  also  related  to  have  studied 
in  the  monastery  of  Glasnevin,  now  a  beautiful  sub- 
urb of  Dublin.  Bishop  Reeves  thinks  that  his  life 
as  a  student  was  followed  by  no  less  than  fifteen 
years  of  missionary  labor  in  Ireland,  founding  num- 
erous churches  and  monasteries  in  many  parts  oS 

[SO] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

the  country — notably  at  Kells,  Derry  and  Durrow, 
his  favorite  foundations. 

Thus  passed  the  first  forty  years — more  than  half 
of  his  life  in  his  native  land.  Various  reasons  have 
been  suggested  for  the  sudden  and  wonderful  change 
in  Columba's  character  and  career,  which  shifted 
the  scene  of  his  exploits  from  Ireland  to  Scotland. 
Whether  true  or  not,  we  can  hardly  pass  over  the 
traditional  story  of  the  occasion  which  brought  him 
to  his  new  home,  where  he  was  to  spend  about 
thirty-five  years  of  most  heroic  service  for  God 
and  man.  Columba  had  acquired  to  a  remarkable 
degree,  we  are  told,  the  Monk's  favorite  art  of  copy- 
ing and  beautifully  illuminating  rare  manuscripts. 
The  story  is  that,  while  visiting  his  early  teacher,  Fin- 
nian  of  Moville,  he  borrowed  and  secretly  copied  a 
precious  Latin  Psalter  of  his  friend,  and,  when  Fin- 
nian  discovered  this,  he  was  very  angry  and  claimed 
the  copy.  Columba  was  Irishman  enough  to  refuse 
to  surrender  without  a  fight.  An  appeal  was  made 
to  the  King  of  Meath,  who  decided  against  the  copy- 
ist, quoting  the  Keltic  law,  *'To  every  cow  belongs 
her  calf,'*  therefore  'Ho  every  book  belongs  its 
copy,  or  child-book."  At  this  decision  Columba 's 
Keltic  blood  was  up,  and  he  must  fight  it  out  to  a 
finish.  He  did  not  justify  as  yet  the  name  of 
**Dove,"  by  showing  a  very  dove-like  disposition. 
''The  Call  of  the  Wild"  had  aroused  the  "Wolf- 
that  was  still  in  him.  Like  a  hot-headed  0  'Donnell, 
he  stirred  up  his  own  Northern  clansmen,  and  a 
bloody  battle  between  the  two  factions  resulted  in 

[31] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

victory  for  Columba  and  the  slaughter  of  many  of 
his  enemies.  A  synod  of  the  Irish  Church  excom- 
municated him  as  a  man  of  blood.  His  confessor,  or 
** soul-friend,"  as  he  called  him,  counselled  submis- 
sion and  repentance.  Impelled  by  remorse  for  his 
unworthy  conduct,  and  a  desire  to  atone  for  it  by 
amendment  of  life,  he  resolved  to  begin  his  ministry 
afresh  in  foreign  parts.  With  twelve  chosen  com- 
panions, Columba  bade  farewell  to  his  beloved  Erin, 
and,  embarking  in  an  open  boat,  the  exile  kept  on 
his  course  until  he  was  out  of  sight  of  Ireland,  and 
landed,  on  the  memorable  evening  of  Whit-Monday, 
563,  at  the  island  called  Hii,  now  known  as  lona. 

Apart  from  this  characteristic  story  of  the  times 
and  the  people,  there  seem  to  have  been  weighty 
and  worthy  reasons  why  this  typical  Irishman  of 
his  day  should  have  sought  a  missionary  field  in 
"Alban,"  now  known  as  *' Scotland."  For  some 
years  past  there  had  been  going  on  an  emigration  of 
his  countrymen  from  the  older  Scotia — from  the 
North  coast  of  Ireland  to  the  West  coast  of  a  new 
Scotland.  Here  the  emigrants  from  Antrim,  called 
then  "Dalriada,"  had  founded  a  new  home  called 
Dalriada  also,  after  the  old.  It  was  this  colony  of 
nominally  Christian  people  whose  King  Conal  at  the 
time  of  Columba 's  coming  was  his  kinsman,  and  who 
probably  gave  him  the  island  of  lona.  There  was 
also  a  special  reason  at  this  time  why  the  ardent 
Irishman  should  come  to  the  aid  of  his  kinsfolk 
across  the  water.  They  were  just  now  in  imminent 
danger    of   extinction    from   their    ferocious    pagan 

[S2] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

neighbors,  the  Picts,  who  under  their  ''most  power- 
ful king,"  Brude,  had  recently  defeated  them  in 
battle.     Such  then  were  the  historical  conditions — 
political   and   religious — when   ''the   man   and   the 
hour  arrived" — when  the  first  great  missionary  of 
the  Irish  race  became  the  noble  Apostle  of  Scotland 
—the  helper  of  his  Christian  kinsmen  in  their  feeble 
colony  here,  and  the  converter  of  their  enemies,  the 
heathen  Picts.    lona,  at  the  coming  of  Columba,  was 
a  forlorn  and  insignificant  island,  about  three  miles 
long  and  one  wide,  off  the  coast  of  the  large  island 
of  Mull  on  the  west  coast  of  Scotland.     Here  for 
two  years  he  was  fully  occupied  with  establishing  a 
secure  and  self-supporting  settlement  —  building  rude 
houses   of  wattle   and  clay   and  of   oak-boards,   a 
church,  a  refectory,  cells  for  the  monks  and  their 
Abbot,  and  a  hospitium  for  their  guests.    They  had 
to  bring  the  ground,  also,  under  cultivation  for  their 
food — ploughing,   sowing,   reaping,    gathering   the 
grain  into  their  barns,  grinding  it  in  their  mills, 
turning  it  into  bread  in  their  ovens.     They  had  to 
gather  some  live  stock,  too,  sheep  and  cattle  and 
cows.    Fortunately,  there  were  fish  enough  at  hand 
for  feasts  as  well  as  fasts.    All  the  while  the  daily 
round  of  monastic  worship  and  study  and  discipline 
must  be  maintained.     This  was  no  place  for  idle 
meditation,  or  self-indulgent  dreams.    Worship  and 
work  went  ever  hand  in  hand.     Columba  was  not 
only  fitting  his  monks  for  missionaries  of  the  Gospel, 
but  he  would  give  his  neighbors  here  a  picture  and 
a  model  of  a  genuine  Christian  community,  indus- 

[33] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

trial,  social,  educational,  as  well  as  ecclesiastical — 
with  a  daily  round  of  work,  manual,  intellectual, 
and  spiritual.  During  this  time  of  settlement  and 
organization  the  colony  had  grown  into  some  two 
hundred  persons.  And  then  their  sagacious  leader 
was  ready  for  the  next  step,  and  for  a  forward 
movement.  He  would  transform  this  Christian 
brotherhood  into  a  centre  of  constant  effort,  and 
turn  his  monks  into  marching  missionary  regiments 
for  bold  and  well-planned  attacks  upon  the  strong- 
holds of  the  heathen.  Already  they  had  made  many 
converts  among  the  peasants  of  Mull  and  the  main 
land.  But  now  the  courageous  Kelt  would  follow 
the  example  of  Patrick  in  Ireland,  and  reach  out 
for  Royalty,  for  the  Pictish  King  Brude,  who  could 
carry  his  people  with  him  when  converted  to  Christ. 
Attended  by  two  Pictish  converts  and  interpreters 
and  by  picked  men  of  his  monks,  Columba  set  forth 
upon  his  first  great  missionary  campaign,  following 
the  series  of  Loughs  which  now  constitute  the  Cale- 
donian Canal  and  divide  Scotland  into  two  parts. 
Lq  this  audacious  expedition  he  penetrated  to  the 
very  citadel  of  pagan  power  as  far  as  Inverness  on 
the  east  coast,  to  bid  Brude  the  hostile  King  of  the 
Picts,  open  his  bolted  gates  and  stubborn  heart  to 
the  entrance  of  the  Gospel  of  peace.  By  gaining 
such  a  convert,  what  an  atonement  for  his  part  in 
the  bloody  feud  of  the  Irish  clans  was  Columba 's 
successful  work  of  healing  the  feud  between  the 
Christian  Scot  and  the  Pagan  Pict !  How  much  no- 
bler his  warfare  for  Christ  in  Scotland  than  that 

[84] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

which  he  had  waged  in  his  native  land !  Beginning 
with  his  triumph  over  the  heathen  magic  of  Broi- 
chan,  the  Druid  chieftain,  and  the  baptism  of  King 
Brude,  Columba  carried  on  in  person  for  ten  years 
his  work  of  converting  the  Highland  hea(then;  and 
then,  leaving  his  disciples  to  follow  it  up,  he  with- 
drew to  his  Island-Monastery  to  make  it  the  mighti- 
est agency  for  Christ  in  the  British  Isles.  Under 
his  own  able  administration  and  that  of  his  well- 
trained  successors,  lona's  evangelizing  influence 
spread  all  over  Scotland;  and  then,  a  generation 
after  Columba 's  death,  joined  forces  with  Augus- 
tine's Roman  monks  in  the  conversion  of  the  Noth- 
umbrian  English.  For  thirty-four  years  Columba 
carried  on  in  person  his  wondrous  work,  and  of  his 
mission  as  a  peace-maker,  the  late  Principal  Story 
of  Glasgow  University,  says:  ''The  missions  of  Col- 
umba laid  the  first  foundation  of  inter-tribal  peace 
throughout  Northern  Britain,  and  so  paved  the  way 
for  the  consolidation  of  the  Picts,  Scots,  Britons  and 
Saxons  into  one  nation.  It  is  not  an  exaggeration 
to  say  that  not  only  the  Scottish  Church  but  the 
Scottish  state  recognizes  its  founder  in  Columba." 

Indeed  the  Kingdom  of  Scotland  properly  began 
with  that  first  colony  of  Irish  in  their  new  home  of 
Dalriada,  now  Argyll,  whose  King  was  Conal  at  the 
coming  of  Columba.  It  was  to  aid  these  fellow- 
countrymen,  partly  at  least,  that  Columba  had 
settled  at  lona,  nor  did  he  ever  cease  to  befriend 
them  during  all  his  other  labors.  He  secured  them 
from  the  hostile   attacks  of  King  Brude   and   the 

[35] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Picts.  He  took  an  active  part,  too,  in  their  internal 
government.  When  one  of  their  kings  died,  and 
the  legitimate  successor  was  incompetent,  the  saint 
took  the  bold  step  of  consecrating  a  better  man 
named  Aidan  to  the  throne.  It  is  interesting  to 
remember  the  tradition  that  he  was  consecrated 
upon  the  ''Stone  of  Fate,"  used  for  long  in  the 
consecration  of  Scottish  kings,  later  removed  to 
Scone  and  afterwards  to  Westminster  Abbey,  whero 
it  still  survives  in  the  coronation  chair  of  English 
kings. 

Another  notable  case  in  which  Columba  came  to 
the  help  of  his  fellow-countrymen  of  Dalriada,  was 
when  he  accompanied  their  King  in  575  to  a  great 
Synod  of  the  Irish  chieftains  at  Drumceatt  in  Ire- 
land, and  "gained  Home  Rule  for  Scottish  Dal- 
riada," by  procuring  for  them  exemption  from  the 
payment  of  a  burdensome  tribute  to  the  High  King 
of  Ireland  at  Tara.  It  is  gratifying  to  know  that 
this  was  not  the  only  occasion  in  which  the  exiled 
Columba  visited  his  native  land.  He  frequently  ex- 
changed visits  with  his  former  colleagues  there,  and 
was  greatly  beloved  both  by  them  and  by  the  Irish 
people  generally.  His  old  monasteries  there  and 
numerous  offshoots  were  glad  to  remain  subject  to 
the  far-famed  Abbot  of  lona.  At  length,  having 
rounded  out  a  serene  old  age,  early  Sunday  morn- 
ing, June  9th,  597, — the  same  year  that  St.  Augus- 
tine began  his  mission  in  England, — St.  Columba 
closed  his  eventful  career  in  Scotland — ''the  noblest 
missionary    career,"    says    Bright,    "ever   accom- 

[36] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

plished  in  Britain.*'  A  week  before  his  death  the 
first  royal  convert  to  Christ  of  the  English  race, 
Ethelbert,  King  of  Kent,  was  baptized  at  Canter- 
bury. Among  the  closing  scenes  of  St.  Columba's 
last  day  on  earth  are  these  touching  stories  drawn 
from  Adamnan's  narrative  by  Prof.  Stokes: — **He 
visited  his  monks  at  their  labors  in  the  field,  and 
blessed  them.  He  visited  the  granary,  and  saw  that 
the  provisions  were  sufiicient  till  the  next  harvest. 
Here  Adamnan  tells  one  of  the  most  touching 
stories,  illustrating  Columba's  keen  poetic  sym- 
pathy with  nature  and  with  animals  (worthy  of  St. 
Francis).  Half-way  between  the  granary  and  the 
storehouse  is  a  spot  still  marked  by  one  of  the  an- 
cient crosses  of  lona  called  Maclean's  Cross.  There 
Columba  met  the  white  horse  which  had  been  em- 
ployed to  carry  milk  from  the  dairy  to  the  monas- 
tery. The  horse  came  and  put  his  head  on  his 
master's  shoulder,  as  if  to  take  leave  of  him.  The 
eyes  of  the  faithful  animal  seemed  bathed  with 
tears.  His  attendant  would  have  sent  the  horse 
away,  but  Columba  forbade  him.  'The  horse  loves 
me,'  he  said,  'leave  him  with  me;  let  him  weep  for 
my  departure.  The  Creator  has  revealed  to  this 
poor  beast  what  He  has  hidden  from  thee  a  reason- 
able man.'  Upon  which,  caressing  the  faithful  brute, 
he  gave  him  a  last  blessing. 

After  this  he  went  to  his  cell,  and  worked  at  the 
transcription  of  a  Psalter.  When  he  came  to  Psalm 
XXXIV.  10,  '  Inquirentes  autem  Dominum  non 
deficient  omni  hono^ — they  that  seek  the  Lord  shall 

[37] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

want  no  manner  of  thing  that  is  good — *I  must  stop 
here,*  he  said.  'Baithene  will  finish  the  rest/ 
(Baithene  was  his  kinsman  and  successor.)  He 
then  sent  a  last  message  to  his  followers  enjoining 
peace  and  charity.  It  was  now  Saturday  night, 
June  8th,  597.  As  soon  as  the  midnight  bell  rang 
for  the  Matins  of  Sunday,  he  rose  from  his  stone 
couch,  ran  to  the  church  before  the  other  monks,  and 
there  was  found  by  his  attendant  prostrate  before 
the  altar.  Columba  opened  his  eyes  once,  turned 
them  upon  his  brethen  with  a  look  full  of  serene  and 
radiant  joy,  raised  his  right  hand  in  an  effort  to 
bless  them,  and  so  passed  away  with  a  face  calm  and 
sweet,  like  that  of  a  man  who  in  his  sleep  has  seen 
a  vision  of  heaven.'' 

And  so  the  dove-like  spirit  of  St.  Columba  took 
its  flight  to  God.  Of  his  dear  lona  its  founder  said 
the  day  before  his  death,  as  he  lifted  up  his  hands 
and  blessed  the  monastic  buildings,  ''To  this  place, 
little  and  poor  tho'  it  be,  there  shall  come  great 
honor,  not  only  from  Scottish  kings  and  people,  but 
from  barbarous  and  foreign  nations,  and  from  the 
saints  of  other  churches  also."  Standing  on  that 
illustrious  island.  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  declares, 
**that  man  is  little  to  be  envied  whose  patriotism 
would  not  be  enforced  upon  the  Plain  of  Marathon, 
or  whose  piety  would  not  grow  warmer  among  the 
ruins  of  lona.''  As  our  own  American  Church  poet 
Rev.  William  Croswell  has  it, 

"The  pilgrim  at  lona 's  shrine 
Forgets  his   journey's   toil, 

As  faith  rekindles  in  his  breast 
On  that  inspiring  soil." 
[38] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  KELTIC  CHURCHES 

We  will  conclude  this  lecture  with  a  parting 
glimpse  at  the  Old  British  Church  proper,  with  which 
we  began.  During  the  period  of  more  than  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half,  from  the  begining  of  Patrick's 
career  in  Ireland  to  the  close  of  Columba's  in  Scot- 
land, which  was  also  contemporaneous  with  the  be- 
ginning of  Augustine's  in  what  had  become  Eng- 
land— while  the  conversion  of  the  Irish  and  the 
Scotch  had  been  going  on  apace,  the  Anglo-Saxon 
tribes  had  gradually  overrun  the  greater  part  of  old 
Britain,  and  well-nigh  wiped  out  British  Christ- 
ianity from  the  regions  which  the  conquerors  occu- 
pied. While  the  light  of  the  Gospel  was  spreading 
steadily  among  the  two  Scottish  peoples,  a  thick 
darkness  of  heathenism  was  settling  down  upon  the 
British  Church.  The  worship  of  Woden  and  Thor 
and  other  Teutonic  gods  was  supplanting  the  relig- 
ion of  Christ  in  England.  The  population,  the  laws, 
the  language,  and  the  very  names  of  the  days  of  the 
week  were  changed.  The  churches  and  monasteries, 
the  homes  and  the  cities  of  the  Christians  were  ruth- 
lessly destroyed.  Some  fled  over  sea  to  Gaul  and 
settled  down  in  Armorica,  to  which  they  gave  the 
name  of  Brittany.  The  rest  who  survived  the 
Saxon  slaughter  took  refuge  chiefly  in  the  moun- 
tains of  Wales  and  the  fastnesses  of  Cornwall  and 
Devon.  Gildas,  the  only  contemporary  British  his- 
torian of  the  latter  part  of  this  period,  writing  about 
the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  gives  a  frightful 
picture  of  the  devastation  wrought  by  the  invaders, 
crying,   with    the    captive  psalmist,   "0   God,   the 

[30] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

heathen  have  come  into  Thine  inheritance ;  Thy  holy 
temple  have  they  defiled."  But  the  worst  part  of 
his  story  is  his  woeful  description  of  the  moral  and 
religious  corruption  in  the  small  remnant  of  the 
British  Church  itself.  His  picture  indeed,  in  all  its 
dreadful  details,  is  so  appalling  as  to  compel  careful 
historians  to  conclude  that  it  is  overdrawn.  For 
there  are  not  wanting  evidences  of  a  continuous  spir- 
itual and  ecclesiastical  life  in  the  Welsh  Church. 
In  410,  when  the  final  withdrawal  of  the  Romans 
occurred,  we  find  only  one  Episcopal  See  in  Wales, 
Caerleon-on-Usk.  But  later,  after  the  influx  of  the 
refugees  from  other  parts  of  Britain,  we  find  as 
many  as  six  Sees.  By  a  subsequent  union  of  several 
Sees  before  the  coming  of  Augustine  this  number 
had  been  reduced  to  four — the  same  four  which  sur- 
vive to-day,  Llandaff,  St.  David's,  St.  Asaph's,  and 
Bangor.  These  are  still  the  survivals  of  the  old 
British  Church,  the  continuous  lineal  descendants 
of  the  earliest  Bishoprics  in  Britain,  with  an  un- 
broken historical  succession  and  life.  For  centuries 
after  Augustine  they  were  independent  both  of 
Rome  and  of  Canterbury,  and  they  did  not  lose 
their  identity  when  they  were  finally,  but  very 
gradually,  after  the  Norman  Conquest,  engrafted 
into  and  absorbed  by  the  English  Church. 


[40] 


II 

The  Coming  of  Augustine  and  the  Roman  Mission 
TO  THE  English 

Having  taken  a  preliminary  glimpse  of  the  land 
and  of  the  peoples  and  the  churches  which  had 
occupied  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  before  the  settle- 
ment of  the  Anglo-Saxons  here,  and  between  the 
time  of  their  coming  and  the  coming  of  St.  Augus- 
tine's mission  to  them, — we  take  up  now  the  often 
told  story  of  the  conversion  of  the  heathen  English 
to  Christianity  and  the  founding  of  the  First  Church 
of  the  English  race. 

Near  the  end  of  the  sixth  century — in  the  year 
that  St.  Columba  died — another  saint  and  hero,  from 
a  more  potent  seat  than  Patrick's  Primatial  See  of 
Armagh  or  Columba 's  lonely  lona,  began  to  play  a 
prominent  part  in  the  re-conquest  of  Britain  from 
pagan  idolatry.  The  best  part  of  Britain  had  now 
become  "  Engle-land, "  the  home  of  the  Teutonic 
tribes  who  had  settled  down  here  with  their  families 
to  stay,  and  who,  after  a  century  and  a  half  of  con- 
quest, formed  a  group  of  petty  kingdoms  commonly 
called  "The  Saxon  Heptarchy."  The  work  of  con- 
verting these  savages  to  Christ  was  a  formidable  task, 
but  the  work  was  well  begun  at  least  by  the  foremost 
man  of  Western  Christendom,  Gregory  the  Great, 
Bishop  of  Rome — as  great  in  personal  character  as 

[41] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

in  official  position.  He  was  a  man  of  noble  birth  and  of 
great  wealth,  who,  after  holding  the  highest  civil  office 
then  in  Rome,  that  of  imperial  Prefect,  had  early- 
renounced  the  world  by  becoming  a  monk  and  de- 
voting himself  and  his  wealth  to  the  cause  of  God 
and  of  humanity.  After  founding  six  monasteries  in 
Sicily,  he  established  a  seventh  on  the  Coclian  hill 
in  Rome.  Here  he  gradually  rose  from  the  hum- 
blest place  therein  to  be  its  abbot.  For  about  six 
years  he  was  an  Envoy  of  the  Roman  See  to  the  capi- 
tal of  the  Empire  at  Constantinople.  By  his  self- 
sacrificing  services  to  his  native  city  in  times  of  direst 
adversity,  when  there  were  flood  and  famines  and 
pestilence  within  the  walls  and  the  Lombards  raging 
and  ravaging  without,  Gregory  had  really  become  the 
'  *  Father  of  his  country ' '  before  he  became  the  Father 
of  the  English  Church.  ''The  Monastery  of  St.  An- 
drew's on  Mt.  Coelius  founded  by  Gregory,"  says  the 
Count  de  Montalembert,  **is  the  one  which  now  bears 
the  name  of  St.  Gregory,  and  is  known  to  all  who 
have  visited  Rome.  This  incomparable  city  contains 
few  spots  more  attractive  and  more  worthy  of  eternal 
remembrances.  ...  On  the  fagade  of  the  Church  an  in- 
scription records  that  thence  set  out  the  first  Apostles 
of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  and  preserves  their  names." 

The  situation  in  England  at  this  time  was  pecu- 
liarly favorable  to  the  reception  of  the  mission  sent 
thither  by  Gregory.  Ethelbert,  great-grandson  of 
Hengist,  and  now  King  of  Kent,  the  principal  king- 
dom of  the  Heptarchy,  had  opened  the  way  to  the 
entrance  of  God's  Word  that  giveth  light  by  marry- 

[42] 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

ing  a  Christian  woman  of  the  kindred  Frankish  race 
in  Gaul.  Bertha,  daughter  of  Charibert  King  of 
Paris,  and  great-granddaughter  of  Clovis  and  Clotilda, 
had  brought  with  her  to  her  husband 's  court  a  Chris- 
tian, Bishop  Liudhard,  as  her  confessor  and  chaplain. 
He  does  not  seem  to  have  accomplished  anything 
towards  Christianizing  the  Jutes  here,  although  his 
presence  and  influence  had  doubtless  favorably  dis- 
posed Ethelbert  towards  the  religion  of  his  queen. 
Liudhard  was  permitted  to  restore  the  ancient  Ro- 
mano-British Church  of  St.  Martin  at  Canterbury. 
He  seems  to  have  officiated  there  for  years,  but 
probably  died  before  the  coming  of  St.  Augustine. 
Gregory's  first  contact  with  the  English,  in  the  per- 
son of  the  slave-boys  at  Rome,  cannot  be  told  too 
often,  nor  told  better  than  in  the  familiar  story  of 
Bede:  '*It  is  reported  that  some  merchants,  having 
just  arrived  at  Rome  on  a  certain  day,  exposed  many 
things  for  sale  in  the  market-place,  and  abundance  of 
people  resorted  thither  to  buy ;  Gregory  himself  went 
with  the  rest,  and,  among  other  things,  some  boys  were 
set  to  sale,  their  bodies  white,  their  countenances  beau- 
tiful, and  their  hair  very  fine.  Having  viewed  them, 
he  asked  from  what  country  or  nation  they  were 
brought?  and  was  told,  from  the  island  of  Britain, 
whose  inhabitants  were  of  such  personal  appearance. 
He  again  inquired  whether  those  islanders  were  Chris- 
tians or  still  involved  in  the  errors  of  paganism  1  and 
was  informed  that  they  were  pagans.  Then  fetching 
a  deep  sigh  from  the  bottom  of  his  heart,  **alas! 
What  pity,"  said  he,  "that  the  author  of  darkness 

[43] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

is  possessed  of  men  of  such  fair  countenances/'  He 
therefore  asked  again,  what  was  the  name  of  that 
nation?  and  was  answered  that  they  were  called 
Angles.  ''Right,"  said  he,  ''for  they  have  an  angelic 
face,  and  it  becomes  such  to  be  co-heirs  with  the  angels 
in  heaven.  What  is  the  name,"  proceeded  he,  "of  the 
province  from  which  they  are  brought?"  It  was  re- 
plied, that  the  name  of  that  province  was  Deira. 
"Truly  are  they  De  ira,"  said  he,  "withdrawn  from 
wrath,  and  called  to  the  mercy  of  Christ.  How  is  the 
King  of  that  province  called?"  They  told  him  his 
name  was  jElla :  and  here,  alluding  to  the  name,  said, 
"Allelulia,  the  praise  of  God  the  Creator  must  be 
sung  in  these  parts."  Gregory  must  have  been  a 
considerable  punster,  according  to  this  story,  and  have 
found  relief  to  his  overburdened  heart,  like  Mr. 
Lincoln,  in  frequent  flashes  of  homely  wit.  He  was 
so  profoundly  impressed  by  this  episode  that  he 
eagerly  offered  himself  as  an  evangelist  to  the  fallen 
angels  of  Anglia,  and  received  the  pope's  reluctant 
consent.  He  had  traveled  three  days  journey  on  his 
way  to  England,  when  he  was  recalled  by  a  popular 
uprising  and  protest  against  his  leaving  Rome  in  her 
own  extremity.  But  a  few  years  afterward,  by  a 
similar  popular  movement,  by  the  united  voice  of 
senate  and  clergy  and  people,  Gregory  was  forcibly 
promoted  from  the  position  of  deacon  and  abbot  to 
that  of  Supreme  Pontiff.  He  found  the  Church  which 
he  was  now  set  to  rule  threatened  with  shipwreck  at 
its  very  centre.  He  himself  compared  it  to  "an  old 
and  violently  shattered  ship  which  admitted  the  water 

[44] 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

on  all  sides,  its  timbers  rotten,  shaken  by  daily 
storms."  But  that  ship  was  not  destined  to  sink 
when  it  carried  this  new  spiritual  Csesar  as  its  cap- 
tain. Nor,  amid  his  overwhelming  cares,  did  he  for- 
get his  old  desire  for  a  better  conquest  of  Britain 
than  that  of  Csesar.  It  was,  doubtless,  his  loving 
recollection  of  the  angel-faced  lads  which  prompted 
him  to  write  to  the  steward  of  his  estates  in  Gaul, 
Candidius,  to  spend  part  of  the  income  in  purchasing 
English  boys  that  they  might  receive  a  Christian 
education,  and  which  made  him  censure  the  Gallican 
bishops  for  their  neglect  of  the  English  in  this  mat- 
ter. "We  are  told  that  he  often  talked  with  his  monks 
of  his  hopes  for  the  conversion  of  the  English,  and 
he  wrote  about  this  time  to  his  dear  friend  Eulogius, 
bishop  of  Alexandria,  invoking  his  prayers.  In  a  de- 
lightful little  book  by  Charles  Hole  on  ''Early  Mis- 
sions to  and  within  the  British  Islands,"  he  says, 
"The  straitened  condition  of  Rome  at  that  period 
has  been  spoken  of,  and  ought  to  be  kept  in  view.  .  .  . 
If  it  ever  occurred  to  Gregory  that  straitness  at  home 
was  any  argument  against  Foreign  Missions,  and  that 
he  should  gather  in  all  the  Lombards  before  taking  up 
the  cause  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  he  must  have  discarded 
the  suggestion.  He  carried  on  home  missions  and 
foreign  missions  concurrently,  and  others  have  acted 
in  the  same  principle."  It  is  a  striking  coincidence 
that,  at  the  very  time  when  Gregory  was  contemplat- 
ing a  mission  to  the  English,  the  Keltic  missionary 
Columban  began  his  work  among  the  Gauls,  and  Col- 
umba  had  been  preaching  for  some  years  to  the  pagan 

[45] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Picts.  It  is  probable  that  these  may  have  helped  to 
excite  the  missionary  zeal  of  Gregory;  for  nothing  is 
more  remarkable  about  him  than  his  wide  knowledge 
of  and  keen  interest  in  the  work  of  every  part  of  the 
Church  down  to  the  minutest  details. 

But  in  the  Spring  of  596  the  Pope  took  more 
vigorous  measures  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  de- 
sire for  the  winning  of  the  English  to  Christ.  As 
he  could  not  go  in  person,  he  selected  a  substitute. 
He  chose  Augustine,  his  familiar  friend  and  prior 
of  his  own  monastery,  to  head  a  band  of  monks  and 
set  forth  on  a  mission  to  the  Angles.  They  became 
disheartened  when  they  got  as  far  as  Provence  in 
Gaul  and  heard  of  the  ferocious  character  of  the 
heathen  in  Britain.  *  *  Struck  with  a  sluggish  timorous- 
ness,''  as  Bede  has  it,  they  even  sent  their  leader  back 
to  Rome  to  beg  off  from  such  a  venture.  But  Gregory 
was  made  of  sterner  stuff,  and  would  have  no  turning 
back.  Their  leader  returned  to  them  more  resolute 
than  before  and  armed  with  the  Pope's  appointment 
as  abbot  to  the  monks,  and  with  the  right  to  require 
a  rigid  obedience.  He  brought  with  him  a  personal 
letter  from  the  Pope  to  the  monks  with  these  words, 
"Let  not  the  toil  of  the  journey,  nor  the  tongues  of 
evil-speaking  men,  deter  you;  but  with  all  possible 
earnestness  and  zeal  perform  that  which  by  God's 
direction  you  have  undertaken,  being  assured  that 
much  labor  is  followed  by  an  eternal  reward. ' ' 

Next  to  Bede's  History  Gregory  ^s  Letters  consti- 
tute our  chief  source  of  information  here.  Of  his 
Letters  about  838  have  been  preserved,  not  very  many 

[46] 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

of  them,  however,  bearing  on  this  case.  The  journey 
through  Gaul  was  also  smoothed  for  these  pioneer 
"Canterbury  pilgrims"  by  Gregory's  twelve  com- 
mendatory letters  to  bishops  and  princes  along  the 
way.  Provided  also  with  Frankish  interpreters,  in 
the  memorable  Spring  of  597,  the  party  landed  in 
Kent,  at  Ebbsfleet  on  the  Isle  of  Thanet,  where  Hen- 
gist  and  Horsa  had  first  landed  with  their  hordes 
for  the  invasion  of  Britain.  They  sent  a  courteous 
message  to  the  King,  announcing  their  arrival  and 
their  errand.  Without  committing  himself  too  far 
Ethelbert  accorded  them  a  kindly  welcome  to  his 
country,  and  shortly  after  granted  them  an  audience. 
Seated  with  his  nobles  and  thanes,  he  received  the 
emissaries  of  the  Pontiff,  who  approached  with  what 
dignity  and  ceremony  they  could  command.  They 
advanced  in  solemn  procession,  bearing  aloft  in  front 
a  silver  cross  and  a  painted  figure  of  the  Christ,  sing- 
ing their  Litany  and  ''entreating  the  Lord  for  their 
own  salvation  and  that  of  those  to  whom  they  came, ' ' 
the  stately  form  of  St.  Augustine,  towering  like  Saul 
head  and  shoulders  above  his  fellows,  bringing  up  the 
rear.  The  abbot,  through  his  interpreter,  preached 
to  the  King  and  his  court  "The  word  of  life;"  to 
which  Ethelbert  replied, — "Fair  words  and  promises 
are  these;  but  seeing  they  are  new  and  doubtful,  I 
cannot  give  in  to  them,  and  give  up  what  I,  with  all 
the  English  race,  have  so  long  observed."  He  gener- 
ously promised,  however,  that  the  strangers  should 
be  treated  fairly  and  hospitably,  and  allowed  to  preach 
their  belief  to  his  people.     They  were  assigned  a 

[47] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

house  in  his  capital  city,  ''the  Burgh  of  the  men  of 
Kent.'*  And  so,  in  stately  procession  the  pilgrims 
made  their  entrance  into  Canterbury,  chanting  their 
pious  intercession,  ''We  beseech  Thee,  0  Lord,  in 
Thy  great  mercy,  let  Thine  anger  and  wrath  be  turned 
away  from  this  city  and  from  Thy  holy  house,  for 
we  have  sinned.  Alleluia."  Here  they  resumed  the 
sacred  routine  of  their  monastic  life,  and  at  St.  Mar- 
tin's Church  they  "sang  the  Psalms,  prayed,  cele- 
brated mass,  preached  and  baptized."  St.  Martin's 
church  still  stands,  rebuilt  in  the  thirteenth  century, 
but  probably  retaining  yet  some  of  the  Roman  work 
of  Bertha's  Church;  and  the  view  from  it  is  to  a 
churchman  what  its  former  Dean  and  historian  Stan- 
ley styles  "one  of  the  most  inspiring  to  be  found  in 
all  the  world."  Soon  the  little  band  of  missionaries 
were  cheered  by  the  baptism  of  Ethelbert  himself, 
in  which  he  was  followed  by  many  of  his  people.  It 
was  on  Whitsunday  in  the  year  of  Grace  597  that  this 
Anglo-Saxon  King  entered  into  the  unity  of  the  Holy 
Church  of  Christ.  "Since  the  Baptism  of  Constan- 
tine,"  says  Count  de  Montalembert,  "and,  excepting 
that  of  Clovis,  there  has  not  been  any  event  of  greater 
moment  in  the  annals  of  Christendom.  . . .  The  Church 
of  Canterbury  has  possessed  unparalleled  splendors," 
he  adds,  "No  Church  in  the  world,  after  the  Church 
of  Rome,  has  been  governed  by  greater  men,  or  has 
waged  more  glorious  conflicts.  But  nothing  in  her 
brilliant  annals  could  eclipse  the  sweet  and  pure  light 
of  that  humble  beginning." 
Encouraged  by  his  success,  Augustine,  according  to 

[481 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

Gregory's  directions,  crossed  over  to  Gaul,  and  at 
Aries,  Nov.  16th,  597,  was  consecrated  to  be  ''Arch- 
bishop of  the  English"  by  Archbishop  Virgilius  and 
other  Frankish  prelates.  In  601  the  Pope  conferred 
upon  Augustine  what  had  come  to  be  a  metropolitan 
insignia,  the  Pall,  which  in  later  times  came  to  have 
a  new  and  more  dangerous  meaning  and  to  play  a 
prominent  part  in  Papal  history.  On  the  Christmas 
following  Augustine's  return  to  Canterbury  he  could 
gladden  the  heart  of  the  Pontiff  by  reporting  the 
baptism  of  over  10,000  converts,  "the  first  fruits  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race  to  Christ."  The  King's  own 
palace  was  assigned  to  the  first  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, and  a  church  built  in  the  days  of  the  Romans 
was  restored  and  enlarged,  and  remodelled  after  St. 
Peter's  at  Rome.  This  became  "Christ  Church"  and 
Canterbury  Cathedral,  the  Mother-church  of  English 
Christianity.  The  only  remains  of  this  original  Cathe- 
dral is  "St.  Augustine's  Chair,"  in  which  so  many 
generations  of  Archbishops  have  been  enthroned  for 
1300  years.  Another  restored  British  church,  which 
had  become  paganized,  became  "St.  Pancras."  Out- 
side the  city  walls  also  rose  a  new  monastery,  for 
which  Ethelbert  subsequently  built  a  stately  abbey- 
church  as  a  burial  place  for  archbishops  and  kings  — 
the  site  of  the  present  St.  Augustine's  Missionary  Col- 
lege. "The  charter  of  this  original  monastery  has 
been  brought  to  light  in  our  day  as  the  oldest  authen- 
tic record  of  the  religious  and  political  history  of  Eng- 
land" (cf.  "Rise  and  Progress  of  the  British  Com- 
monwealth" by  Sir  Francis  Palgrave). 

[49] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

St.  Augustine,  good  and  true  man  as  he  was,  was 
not  like  St.  Gregory  a  bom  leader,  bold  in  taking  the 
initiative.  Fortunately  he  leaned  hard  on  his  superior, 
and  sought  his  advices  and  support  as  much  as  possi- 
ble. We  find  him  about  this  time  sending  two  of  his 
companions,  Laurentius  and  Peter,  to  Rome  asking 
re-enforcements  for  his  work,  and  the  counsel  of  his 
chief  for  the  administration  of  his  new  Metropolitan 
See.  His  letters  to  the  Pope  reveal  a  rather  narrow 
mind  and  a  lack  of  originality  in  striking  contrast  to 
the  broad  and  statesmanlike  policy  of  Gregory  in  re- 
ply to  the  nine  questions  proposed  by  Augustine. 
"They  are  a  curious  collection,"  says  Dr.  Alfred 
Plummer.  "With  regard  to  some  of  them,  we  won- 
der how  any  reasonable  Christian,  with  a  moderate 
knowledge  of  Scripture,  could  be  in  any  doubt.  With 
regard  to  others,  our  wonder  is  given  to  Gregory's 
admirable  answers.  Augustine  asks  whether  two 
brothers  can  marry  two  sisters;  and  Gregory  says, 
* '  Of  course  they  may. ' '  Augustine  asks  whether  men 
may  marry  their  stepmothers ;  and  Gregory  says,  ' '  Of 
course  they  may  not."  Surely,  Augustine  might  have 
spared  the  Pope  the  trouble  of  answering  such  ques- 
tions as  these." 

We  can  only  notice  some  of  the  most  serious  points 
in  this  correspondence.  Augustine  asks  for  direction 
about  the  different  Liturgies  then  in  use  in  Rome  and 
Gaul  and  elsewhere.  The  Pope  advises  him  not  to 
alhere  too  rigidly  even  to  the  Roman  Liturgy  which 
Gregory  himself  had  recently  revised,  but  to  adopt 
whatever  he  found  best  in  the  Galliean  or  other  use, — 

[60] 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

**My  pleasure  is,  that  you  should  with  great  care 
select  whatever  you  think  will  best  please  Almighty 
God,  wherever  you  find  it,  whether  in  the  Church  of 
Rome  or  in  the  Church  of  Gaul,  or  in  any  other 
Church.  And  then  plant  firmly  in  the  Church  of  the 
English  that  which  you  have  collected  from  many 
Churches,  depositing  it  in  the  minds  of  the  English 
as  their  custom  or  use." 

It  was  evidently  the  purpose  of  the  Pontiff  to  estab- 
lish the  Roman  mission  in  England,  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble, into  a  national  and  autonomous  branch  of  the  one 
Catholic  Church,  with  the  liberty  to  determine  its  own 
rites  and  ceremonies  and  administer  its  own  affairs. 
In  his  letter  to  Augustine,  Gregory  speaks  of  ''The 
Roman  Church,"  of  ''The  Church  of  Gaul,"  and  of 
"the  new  Church— The  Church  of  the  English"— 
exactly  what  is  styled  in  Magna  Charter  and  in  the 
great  act  of  supremacy  under  Henry  VIII,  "the 
Church  of  England,  called  Anglicana  Ecclesia."  As 
the  late  Bishop  of  Bristol,  Dr.  Browne,  who  has  made 
this  subject  the  study  of  his  life,  declares,  "He  once 
mentions  the  Roman  Church,  when  a  question  of  Au- 
gustine forces  him  to  do  so;  but  he  only  mentions  it 
then  side  by  side  with  others, — ' '  the  Roman  Church, ' ' 
he  says,  "the  GaUican  Church,"  and  any  other 
Church."  And  he  mentions  it  only  to  say  expressly 
that  the  English  Church  was  not  to  be  bound  to  fol- 
low it  even  in  the  most  solemn  act  of  the  Church,  the 
celebration  of  Masses."  ("Augustine  and  His  Com- 
panions.") It  ought  to  be  added  that  not  once,  in  all 
the  Letters  of  Gregory  preserved  by  Bede,  does  he 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

say  anything  about  the  English  Church  being  subject 
to  the  Roman  Church  or  to  the  Pope,  or  claim  to  be 
the  successor  of  St.  Peter. 

On  one  important  point,  however,  Gregory's  usual 
wisdom  and  tact  and  breadth  of  view  seem  to  have 
failed  him.  For  he  gave  Augustine  a  piece  of  advice 
which  proved  a  stumbling-block  to  the  Pope's  other- 
wise statesman-like  policy,  which  went  far  to  prevent 
a  wooden  man  like  Augustine  from  doing  a  much 
greater  work  in  England.  Augustine  had  asked  this 
question,  **How  are  we  to  deal  with  the  bishops  of 
the  provinces  of  Gaul  and  the  British  Isles?"  The 
Pope  had  replied,  "From  the  ancient  times  of  my 
predecessors,  the  bishop  of  Aries  has  received  the 
pallium ;  we  must  by  no  means  deprive  him  of  the 
authority  he  has  received;  we  give  you  no  authority 
among  Galilean  bishops.  All  the  bishops  of  the  British 
Isles  we  commit  to  you,  my  brother,  that  those  who  are 
unlearned  may  be  taught,  the  weak  may  be  strength- 
ened by  persuasions,  the  perverse  corrected  by  au- 
thority.^' 

Gregory  made  a  blunder  here,  and  exceeded  his 
own  authority  and  Augustine 's  too,  in  conferring  upon 
the  latter  as  Archbishop  and  Metropolitan  of  the  new 
English  Church  a  jurisdiction  over  the  British  bishops 
of  a  very  old  church,  which  neither  of  them  possessed, 
and  which  the  bishops  in  Wales  would  be  sure  to 
resent.  According  to  the  8th  Canon  of  the  Ecumeni- 
cal Council  of  Ephesus,  **None  of  the  bishops  shall 
take  possession  of  a  province  that  was  not  from  the 
first  and  originally  under  his  hand  or  that  of  his  pre- 

[62] 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

decessors."  Gregory  was  more  than  justified  in  send- 
ing missionaries  to  convert  a  new  and  heathen  people 
in  an  old  land,  from  which  both  the  Church  and  State 
of  earlier  times  had  withdrawn.  But  he  had  no  right 
to  subject  unasked  the  British  bishops  outside  the 
Anglo-Saxon  dominions  to  the  new  See  of  Canter- 
bury. Even  if  he  had  the  right,  the  scheme  was 
foredoomed  to  failure.  If  not  a  crime,  it  was  certainly 
a  blunder, — and  Gregory  was  not  given  to  blundering. 
Doubtless,  his  information  about  the  Church  in 
Britain,  in  its  then  isolated  condition,  was  meagre 
enough  and  Augustine's  was  more  so;  but,  while  he 
did  not  undertake  to  play  the  Pope  in  the  later  sense 
of  that  word,  yet  already  we  can  see  the  thin  edge 
of  the  wedge  of  the  inherent  universal  supremacy  of 
the  Roman  See  beginning  to  obtrude  itself.  As  Canon 
Bright  has  it,  ''Vehement  as  were  Gregory's  protests 
against  the  adoption  by  the  Patriarch  of  Constantino- 
ple, or  the  application  to  himself,  of  the  title  of  'Uni- 
versal Bishop,'  he  always  acted  on  that  theory  re- 
specting his  own  office,  which  had  been  gradually 
developing  itself  from  the  early  part  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, and  was  to  develop  itself  yet  more  in  aftertimes, 
pope  after  pope  never  retracting,  but  adopting  and 
uniformly  improving  upon  the  pretentions  of  their 
predecessors."    (Early  English  Church  History.") 

In  other  respects  the  general  scheme  of  organiza- 
tion prescribed  by  Gregory  for  Augustine  to  follow 
was  sagacious  and  far-sighted,  but  I  cannot  follow  it 
further.  After  all,  the  Papacy,  or  something  like 
it,  as  the  best  Protestant  historians  admit,  seems  to 

[53] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHUKCH  OF  ENGLAND 

have  been  inevitable  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages  for  a  powerful  centralized  government  of 
the  Church  to  confront  the  chaos  and  disintegration 
of  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  swarming  of  the  Ger- 
manic barbarians.  As  popes  go,  Gregory  was  cer- 
tainly one  of  the  best,  and  beats  Henry  VIII  out  of 
sight  for  Founder  of  the  English  Church.  Henry  was 
more  than  900  years  too  late  for  that  job,  and  cer- 
tainly had  no  intention  of  starting  a  new  Church.  It 
has  been  well  said,  *'We  must  not  confound  Rome 
the  enlightener  of  the  nations  in  the  sixth  century 
with  Rome,  the  corrupter  of  the  nations  in  the  six- 
teenth century.*^ 

Through  the  instrumentality  of  Ethelbert  arrange- 
ments were  made  for  a  meeting  between  Augustine 
and  the  British  bishops  of  Wales  in  the  year  602  or 
603  at  a  place  long  after  known  as  *' Augustine 's 
Oak'' — a  location  still  in  dispute.  ''Augustine," 
according  to  Bede,  whom  we  follow  closely,  ''began  to 
try  to  persuade  them  by  brotherly  admonitions  to 
hold  Catholic  peace  with  himself  and  to  undertake 
in  conjunction  with  him  the  work  of  preaching  the 
Gospel  to  the  heathen  for  the  Lord's  sake. ' '  Of  course 
there  was  room  for  considerable  difference  of  opinion 
as  to  what  constituted  "Catholic  peace."  On  this 
crux  Bede  is  not  explicit.  The  Britons  were  told 
that  they  did  not  keep  Easter  Sunday  at  the  proper 
time  and  did  several  other  things  which  were  against 
the  unity  of  the  Church — evidently  matters  of  little 
importance.  "After  a  long  disputation,  they  did  not 
comply  with  the  entreaties,  exhortations  or  rebukes 

[54] 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

of  Augustine  and  his  companions,  but  preferred  their 
own  traditions — they  could  not  depart  from  their  an- 
cient customs  without  the  consent  and  leave  of  their 
people, ' '  even  when  Augustine  is  said  to  have  clinched 
his  arguments  by  giving  sight  to  a  blind  man  after 
the  British  had  attempted  the  miracle  and  failed. 
They  proposed  therefore  a  second  meeting  at  which 
more  of  their  number  would  be  present.  To  this 
second  conference  ''there  came  seven  bishops  of  the 
Britons,  and  many  most  learned  men,  particularly 
from  their  most  noble  monastery"  at  Bangor  Iscoed 
near  Chester.  Unfortunately  Augustine  received  this 
august  body  sitting  in  his  chair,  which  seemed  dis- 
courteous and  too  archi-episcopal  to  promise  a  success- 
ful issue.  But,  spite  of  his  supposed  haughty  bearing, 
his  terms  were  really  not  illiberal,  as  Bede  reports 
them.  "He  said  to  them,  'You  act  in  many  par- 
ticulars contrary  to  our  custom,  or  rather  the  custom 
of  the  universal  Church,  and  yet,  if  you  will  comply 
with  me  in  these  three  points:  viz.,  to  keep  Easter  at 
due  time;  to  administer  Baptism  by  which  we  are 
bom  again  to  God  according  to  the  custom  of  the 
holy  Roman  Apostolic  Church;  and  jointly  with  us 
to  preach  the  Word  of  God  to  the  English  nation,  we 
will  readily  tolerate  all  the  other  things  you  do, 
though  contrary  to  our  customs.'  They  answered 
that  they  would  do  none  of  these  things,  nor  receive 
him  as  their  archbishop ;  for  they  alleged  among  them- 
selves that  if  he  would  not  rise  up  to  us,  how  much 
more  will  he  condemn  us  as  of  no  worth  if  we  shall 
begin  to  be  under  his  subjection  ? ' '    There  must  have 

[56] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

been  more  in  this  interview  than  appears  on  the 
surface.  The  two  insuperable  hindrances  to  union 
on  the  part  of  the  Britons  were  doubtless  race-hatred 
of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  who  for  150  years  had  been 
their  cruel  conquerors,  and  submission  to  the  au- 
thority of  an  unknown  archbishop  of  the  English — 
which  meant  to  them  the  submission  of  seven  bishops 
of  an  old  beloved  church  to  this  one  solitary  bishop 
of  a  brand-new  church  just  started.  As  in  all  quar- 
rels there  were  faults  no  doubt  on  both  sides,  and 
the  breach  which  it  took  more  than  five  centuries  to 
heal,  was  disastrous  to  both  parties,  especially  to  the 
British  Christians,  whose  help  was  sorely  needed  in 
the  conversion  of  the  English  heathen  and  who  con- 
tributed nothing  at  all  to  that  good  and  glorious 
work.  The  Scotch-Irish,  who  shared  their  traditions 
to  the  full,  but  not  their  persecutions,  and  who  kept 
aloof  for  a  time,  did  at  a  later  day  render  heroic  and 
most  successful  service  in  evangelizing  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  and  in  the  making  of  the  English  Church. 
The  conference  for  ''Catholic  Peace"  at  Augustine's 
Oak  ended  in  sectarian  and  schismatic  strife  and  bit- 
terness. This  ''Synod  of  the  Oak"  might  well  have 
been  called  the  "Synod  of  the  Oaks,"  for  there  was 
tough  and  unyielding  material  in  both  parties.  Bede 
himself,  whose  sympathy  was  strongly  with  the  Roman 
Mission,  but  who  was  broad-minded  enough  to  love 
and  revere  the  holy  men  of  the  Scottish  Church,  speaks 
very  harshly  of  the  British  Church,  and  closes  his 
account  of  the  conference  with  their  bishops  with 
these  stinging  words:   "To  them  the  man  of  God, 

[56] 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

Augustine,  is  said,  in  a  threatening  manner  to  have 
foretold  that  in  case  they  would  not  join  in  unity 
with  their  brethren,  they  should  be  warred  upon  by 
their  enemies,  and,  if  they  would  not  preach  the  way 
of  life  to  the  English  nation,  they  should  at  their 
hands  undergo  the  vengeance  of  death.  All  which, 
through  the  dispensation  of  the  Divine  judgment,  fell 
out  exactly  as  he  had  predicted."  Nine  years  or 
more,  after  Augustine's  death,  there  was  a  terrible 
massacre  of  these  monks  of  Bangor  Iscoed  by  order 
of  Ethelfrid  the  pagan  Anglican  King. 

For  centuries  the  British  Church  continued  dis- 
tinct and  independent  alike  of  Rome  and  of  Canter- 
bury, preserving  their  peculiarities  of  race  and  lan- 
guage and  ecclesiastical  usage,  along  with  their  Cath- 
olic faith  and  polity — having  done  much  for  the 
evangelizing  of  their  Irish  and  Scotch  kindred,  who 
in  turn  did  vastly  more  for  the  conversion  of  England 
and  of  Continental  Europe.  Ultimately,  when  the 
Britons  of  Wales  and  Cornwall  were  conquered  by 
the  English,  when  their  chiefs  became  at  last  subject 
to  the  English  Government  under  the  Normans,  their 
bishops  also  submitted  to  the  Primate  of  the  English 
Church.  It  was  in  this  slow  and  gradual  way — mainly 
from  the  tenth  to  the  thirteenth  century — that  the 
earliest  Church  of  old  Britain  was  absorbed  by  and 
incorporated  with  the  Anglo-Norman  Church,  so  that 
their  history  becomes  an  interesting  part  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  Church  of  England. 

Failing  utterly  to  secure  any  additional  laborers  for 
his  vast  missionary  field   from  the   Welsh  bishops, 

[67] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Augustine  had  to  content  himself  with  the  small  re- 
inforcement which  Gregory  had  recently  sent  him, 
including  the  priests  Mellitus,  Justus  and  Paulinus. 
He  consecrated  Justus  as  first  bishop  of  a  new  See 
in  Kent  at  Rochester.  Outside  of  Kent  he  was  only 
able  through  Ethelbert's  influence  over  his  nephew, 
Sabert,  King  of  the  East  Anglicans,  to  revive  the  old 
British  See  of  Roman  days  at  London.  Here  he  estab- 
lished Mellitus  for  a  very  short-lived  Episcopate, 
For  each  of  these  Ethelbert  made  liberal  contribu- 
tions, and  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  in  London  still  owns 
an  estate  in  Essex  from  the  King  of  Kent's  donation. 
Shortly  before  Augustine's  death,  he  consecrated 
one  of  his  original  companions,  Laurentius,  as  his 
own  successor  at  Canterbury  (which  was  contrary  to 
the  Nicene  Canons)  "in  fear,"  says  Bede,  "lest  the 
unsettled  Church  might  totter  and  fall  if  left  des- 
titute of  a  bishop  for  even  an  hour."  In  the  year 
604,  May  26th,  after  a  career  in  England  of  only 
seven  years,  having  nobly  laid  the  sure  foundation  of 
a  work  destined  to  survive  all  the  changes  and  chances 
of  English  history,  the  first  archbishop  of  Canterbury 
rested  from  his  labors.  ' '  Whatever  his  shortcomings, ' ' 
says  the  late  Canon  Bright  of  Oxford,  "Augustine  of 
Canterbury  was  a  good  man,  a  devout  and  laborious 
Christian  worker,  who  could  and  did  face  threatening 
difficulties  and  accept  serious  risks  in  loyalty  to  a 
sacred  cause;  a  missionary  whose  daily  conduct  was 
a  recommendation  of  his  preaching,  who  could  im- 
press and  convince  men  of  various  classes  in  a 
Teutonic  people  that  had  little  in  common  with  his 

[58] 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

Italian  antecedents;  who,  as  archbishop,  did  his  duty, 
as  he  read  it,  with  all  his  might,  if  not  without  mis- 
takes or  failures,  such  as  we  may  be  tempted  to  judge 
more  harshly  than  they  merit ;  who,  acting  thus,  accom- 
plished more  than  appears  at  first  sight,  in  that  he 
originated  so  much  of  the  work  that  was  to  make 
England  Christian."  (''Early  English  Church  His- 
tory.") 

Gregory  the  Great  died  shortly  before  Augustine, 
March  12th,  604.  English  and  American  churchmen 
have  good  reason  to  be  proud  of  so  prominent  a  per- 
sonage for  the  Founder  of  their  Church,  and  no 
reason  to  be  ashamed  of  the  lesser  man  whom  the 
Master-builder  sent  to  lay  the  corner-stone. 

And  yet  how  small  the  beginnings  of  so  big  an 
enterprise,  at  the  time  of  their  death,  and  how  un- 
promising the  outlook  for  their  immediate  followers. 
Neither  of  these  daring  leaders  lived  to  see  much 
more  than  the  laying  of  a  sure  foundation.  Gregory 
the  Great  might  have  said,  with  a  greater  than  he, 
St.  Paul  himself,  one  of  the  two  Founders  of  his  own 
Church  at  Rome,  ''I  have  laid  the  foundation,  and 
another  buildeth  thereon."  Augustine's  immediate 
successors  must  have  found  a  situation  well-nigh 
hopeless.  Under  Augustine  and  his  associates  Chris- 
tianity was  planted  in  Kent  and  in  Essex,  but  was 
soon  violently  uprooted  in  the  latter,  and  barely 
escaped  the  same  fate  in  the  former.  After  his  death 
a  similar  work  Avas  successfully  started  by  Paulinus 
in  Northumbria,  which  was  w^ell-nigh  wrecked  when 
that  tough  old  pagan,  Penda  of  Mercia,  upset  the 

[59] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

dynasty  which  had  accepted  Christianity.  Other 
missionaries  from  various  quarters,  at  different  times, 
converted  the  several  kingdoms  of  the  Heptarchy. 
And  these  converts  were  organized  into  one  English 
Church  on  the  foundation  and  under  the  system  in- 
augurated by  Augustine,  and  completed  by  his 
stronger  successor  and  far  greater  organizer.  Arch- 
bishop Theodore,  of  whom  we  shall  hear  later. 

Lawrence,  the  second  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
seems  to  have  been  a  more  conciliatory  man  than  his 
predecessor,  but  had  no  better  success  in  his  efforts 
to  heal  the  breach  with  the  Keltic  Christians.  He 
tried  to  accomplish  with  the  Irish  what  had  failed 
with  the  British  bishops,  and  addressed  a  gracious 
letter  to  ''our  most  dear  brothers,  the  lords,  bishops 
and  abbots,  through  all  Scotia"  (i.  e.  Ireland).  He 
expressed  his  deep  pain  that  Dagan,  an  Irish  bishop, 
who  had  lately  visited  Canterbury,  had  declined  to 
eat  with  the  Roman  missionaries,  or  even  in  the 
same  house,  and  his  own  strong  desire  and  hope  of 
better  things  from  the  rest  of  his  Irish  brothers." 
But  these  brothers  were  not  yet  ready  to  fall  on  the 
neck  of  those  whom  they  hardly  counted  half-brothers. 
With  no  better  results  he  had  a  similar  correspond- 
ence with  his  British  cousins,  who  did  not  even  answer 
his  letter. 

King  Ethelbert  died  in  616,  after  a  reign  of  fifty-six 
years.  He  should  be  remembered,  not  only  as  the 
first  Christian  King  of  the  English  race,  but  also  as 
the  '^author  of  the  earliest  extant  set  of  written 
Laws  which  embody  the  old  English  customs;  and 

[60] 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

the  first  place  in  these  is  given  to  the  affairs  of  the 
Church. "  ' '  Among  other  benefits, ' '  says  Bede, ' '  which 
he  conferred  upon  the  nation,  by  the  advice  of  wise 
persons  (the  Witan),  he  introduced  judicial  decrees 
after  the  Roman  model ;  which,  being  written  in  Eng- 
lish, are  still  kept  and  observed  by  them.  Among 
which  he  in  the  first  place,  set  down  what  satisfaction 
should  be  given  by  those  who  should  steal  anything 
belonging  to  the  Church,  the  bishop,  or  the  other 
clergy,  resolving  to  give  protection  to  those  whose 
doctrines  he  had  embraced."  These  *'Laws  of  Ethel- 
bert,"  still  surviving  textually,  have  been  called  **the 
earliest  specimen  of  jurisprudence  in  a  barbarous 
tongue. ' ' 

After  Ethelbert's  death  Archbishop  Lawrence  had 
all  he  could  do  to  hold  his  own  in  Kent.  Eadbald, 
the  unworthy  son  and  successor  of  Ethelbert,  took  to 
himself  for  second  wife  the  young  widow  of  his  father, 
and  was  ready  to  repudiate  a  religion  which  inter- 
fered with  this  popular  old  Teutonic  practice.  It 
was  with  great  difficulty  that  he  was  brought  to  a 
better  mind,  but  most  of  his  people  relapsed  into  their 
original  heathenism  and  did  not  have  far  to  go.  In 
Essex,  especially  London,  the  repudiation  of  Chris- 
tianity and  of  its  Bishop  Mellitus  w^as  complete  after 
that  prelate  refused  to  give  the  sacramental  bread  to 
those  unbaptized  barbarians,  the  two  sons  of  the  late 
King  Sabert.  Essex  became  too  hot  to  hold  the 
Bishop  of  London,  and  he  beat  a  hasty  retreat  from 
that  bad  town.  Justus  of  Rochester  joined  him  in  his 
flight,  and  the  two  bishops  did  not  feel  safe  until  they 

[61] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

had  put  the  English  channel  behind  them  and  landed 
in  Gaul.  Nothing  short  of  one  of  Bede's  timely  mir- 
acles stopped  the  archbishop  himself  from  sharing  the 
voyage  of  his  brothers  of  London  and  Rochester.  The 
miracle  which  kept  Laurentius  from  putting  to  sea 
was  an  apparition  of  St.  Peter  to  him  the  night  be- 
fore, who  rebuked  him  for  his  cowardice,  and  scourged 
him  soundly  ' '  with  apostolic  blows  and  knocks. ' '  The 
same  miracle  was  made  to  do  double  duty  by  fright- 
ening King  Eadbald  into  dropping  his  unlawful  wife 
and  returning  to  the  bosom  of  the  Church.  Justus 
was  brought  back  to  his  abandoned  flock  by  the  com- 
bined efforts  of  Archbishop  and  King.  But  the  Lon- 
doners declined  Mellitus  with  thanks,  and  continued 
stubborn  in  their  heathenism  for  another  forty  years. 
Mellitus  and  Justus  each  in  turn  succeeded  Lauren- 
tius as  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  In  fact,  when 
Justus's  turn  came,  he  was  the  only  bishop  of  the 
Roman  mission  left  in  England.  He  had  only  to 
appoint  himself  archbishop,  and  supply  any  irregu- 
larities by  receiving  the  Pope's  pall  and  permission 
to  consecrate  singly  one  Romanus  for  the  vacant  See 
at  Rochester. 

And  now  the  scene  shifts  from  Canterbury  far 
northward,  to  the  land,  at  last,  from  which  had  come 
Gregory's  angelic  boys  of  Deira.  The  only  other  off- 
shoot from  the  sickly  ecclesiastical  plant  in  Kent  was 
a  short-lived  one  that  sprang  into  sudden  and  rapid 
growth  in  the  kingdom  of  Northumbria,  now  become 
what  Kent  had  once  been,  the  most  powerful  kingdom 
of  the  Heptarchy.    Northumbria  was  the  name  given 

[62] 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

to  the  vast  region  north  of  the  river  Humber  up  to 
the  firth  of  Forth.  It  was  divided  into  two  provinces, 
Deira  being  the  southern,  with  its  capital  at  York, 
and  corresponding  somewhat  to  the  present  York- 
shire. The  northern  province  was  called  Bernicia, 
with  its  capital  at  Bamborough,  including  the  coun- 
ties of  Durham,  Northumberland  and  Lothians. 
' '  Northumbria, "  says  the  Count  de  Montalembert, 
''was  not  merely  the  largest  kingdom  of  the  Saxon 
Pleptarchy, — it  is  also  that  whose  history  is  the  most 
animated,  dramatic  and  varied.  This  is  naturally  ex- 
plained by  the  fact  that  it  is  the  birthplace  of  the 
venerable  Bede.  This  great  and  honest  historian  was 
born  and  always  lived  in  Northumbria.  Hence  in  his 
interesting  narratives  a  natural  prominence  is  given 
to  the  men  and  affairs  of  his  native  region  along  with 
an  exact  and  detailed  reproduction  of  the  local  tradi- 
tions and  personal  recollections  which  he  treasured  up 
and  reported  with  such  scrupulous  care."  (''The 
Monks  of  the  West.") 

It  is  a  notable  fact  that  the  most  successful  way  of 
converting  the  Anglo-Saxon  Kings,  who  "would  not 
obey  the  Word,"  was  through  "the  godly  conver- 
sion of  their  wives."  This  became  the  regular  use 
of  the  Saxon  Church  for  royalty  at  least — almost  the 
' '  Established  Religion ' '  of  the  English  Kings.  North- 
umbria, Mercia  and  Sussex  followed  the  precedent 
established  by  Ethelbert  at  Canterbury.  In  each  alike 
a  Christian  princess,  with  the  aid  of  her  chaplain, 
won  over  to  her  own  faith  her  heathen  husband — a 

[63] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

good  old  English  custom  which  crops  up  every  once 
in  a  while  throughout  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 

The  mission  of  the  Roman  Paulinus,  followed  by 
the  far  more  fruitful  mission  of  the  Scotch-Irish 
Aidan,  to  Northumbria  (of  which  I  shall  speak  in  my 
next  Lecture)  were  the  most  promising  events  of 
which  we  have  heard  yet  in  the  making  of  the  Eng- 
lish Church — the  most  advanced  steps  toward  the 
Conversion  of  the  English.  While  the  extensive  work 
of  Paulinus  had  little  permanent  result,  it  opened  the 
way  for  greater  things  later.  The  story  of  these  two 
wonderful  missions  is  full  of  interest  and  instruction. 

Edwin,  whose  name  has  been  perpetuated  in  the 
city  of  Edinburg,  was  now  King  of  Northumbria  and 
Bretwalda,  or  Lord  of  Britain.  He  was  the  son  of 
that  -^Ua,  from  whose  dominions  had  come  the  slave 
boys  that  touched  the  heart  of  Gregory,  and  in  whose 
kingdom  he  would  have  '* Alleluia"  sung.  His  prayer 
was  about  to  be  realized  at  last.  Edwin  asked  for  the 
hand  of  Ethelburga,  daughter  of  Ethelbert  of  Kent, 
and  sister  of  Eadbald  then  reigning.  The  royal  con- 
sent to  his  sister's  marriage  was  given  on  condition 
that  she  should  be  allowed  the  free  exercise  of  the 
Christian  religion  and  the  service  of  a  chaplain  at 
the  pagan  court.  The  terms  were  accepted,  and  Ed- 
win expressed  his  own  willingness  to  adopt  the  faith 
of  his  bride  if,  in  the  opinion  of  his  wise  men,  it  was 
found  a  better  religion.  Paulinus  was  consecrated 
bishop  in  the  summer  of  625,  and  went  with  the  new 
queen  to  her  northern  home,  to  be  to  her  what  Bishop 
Liudhard  had  been  to  her  mother  Bertha  in  then 

[04] 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

pagan  Kent.  Edwin,  like  Ethelbert,  was  in  no  par- 
ticular hurry  to  change  his  religion.  But  on  Easter 
Eve,  626,  the  King  was  wounded  and  nearly  slain  by 
an  assassin  sent  by  the  King  of  Wessex,  and  that 
same  **most  holy  night  of  the  Lord's  Patssion,"  the 
queen  gave  birth  to  a  daugher.  Paulinus  seized  this 
opportunity  to  press  his  message  home  to  the  King's 
heart.  The  father  consented  that  the  babe  Eanfleda 
should  be  baptized  in  her  mother's  faith,  and  prom- 
ised to  become  a  Christian  himself  should  he  triumph 
over  his  enemy  in  the  war  at  hand.  On  his  return 
home  victorious,  he  agreed  to  consult  the  Witan,  or 
wise  men  of  his  kingdom,  and  summoned  them  to 
Goodmanham  near  York.  Then  and  there  he  asked 
his  counsellors  what  they  thought  of  the  proposed 
change  of  religion.  Bede  has  preserved  two  of  the 
opinions  expressed  which  make  a  striking  contrast. 
The  chief  priest  named  Coifi  gave  an  answer  which 
revealed  a  selfish  and  utilitarian  old  heathen  of  the 
deepest  dye.  ''The  old  worship,*'  said  he,  "seems  to 
me  worth  nothing :  no  man  has  practiced  it  more  than 
I,  and  yet  many  fare  better  and  have  more  favor  at 
your  hand.  If  the  gods  had  any  power,  they  would 
rather  help  me,  who  have  served  them  more  than 
others.  Let  us  then  see  what  this  new  lore  is  good 
for;  if  it  is  better  than  the  old,  let  us  straightway 
follow  it.*' — Very  different  was  the  touching  and 
beautiful  answer  of  another  thane,  who  showed  that 
God  had  not  left  himself  without  witness  in  one  poetic 
soul : 

"I  will  tell  you,  0  King,  what  methinks  man's  life 

[66] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

is  like,  Sometimes,  when  your  hall  is  lit  up  for  sup- 
per on  a  wild  winter's  evening  and  warmed  by  a  fire, 
in  the  midst  a  sparrow  flies  in  by  one  door,  takes 
shelter  for  a  moment  in  the  warmth,  and  then  flies 
out  again  by  another  door,  and  is  lost  in  the  stormy 
darkness.  No  one  in  the  hall  sees  the  bird  before  it 
enters,  nor  after  it  has  gone  forth;  it  is  only  seen 
while  it  hovers  near  the  fire.  So  it  is,  I  ween,  with 
this  brief  span  of  our  life  in  this  world;  what  has 
gone  before  it,  what  will  come  after  it, — of  this  we 
know  nothing.  If  the  strange  teacher  can  tell  us,  by 
all  means  let  him  be  heard. '  * 

Wordsworth  has  embodied  this  parable  in  one  of  his 
beautiful  ''Ecclesiastical  Sonnets": — 

** Man's  life  is  like  a  sparrow,  mighty  King! 
That — while  at  banquet  with  your  chiefs  you  sit 
Housed  near  a  blazing  fire — is  seen  to  flit 
Safe  from  the  wintry  tempest.    Fluttering, — 
Here  did  it  enter;  there  on  hasty  wing, 
Flies  out,  and  passes  on  from  cold  to  cold; 
But  whence  it  came,  we  know  not,  nor  behold 
Whither  it  goes.    Even  such,  that  transient  Thing, 
The  human  Soul ;  not  utterly  unknown 
While  in  the  Body  lodged,  her  warm  abode; 
But  from  what  world  she  came,  what  woe  or  weal 
On  her  departure  waits,  no  tongue  hath  shown : 
This  mystery  if  the  Stranger  can  reveal. 
His  be  a  welcome  cordially  bestowed." 

Bede  has  not  recorded  the  Sermon  of  Paulinus  on 
this  momentous  occasion,  but  he  has  drawn  a  very 
vivid  picture  of  the  preacher  and  of  the  impression 

[66] 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

which  he  made.  As  the  spokesman  for  Christ  seized 
this  golden  opportunity  of  presenting  to  his  eager 
audience  the  Christian  answer  to  the  ' '  whence  ? ' '  and 
the  *' whither?"  of  man's  brief  life  on  earth, — as  the 
preacher  stood  forth  there  at  Goodmanham,  "tall, 
with  a  slight  stoop,  black  hair,  a  thin  face,  an  aquiline 
nose,  an  aspect  at  once  venerable  and  awe-striking, ' ' — 
to  proclaim  the  Gospel  of  eternal  life,  it  must  have 
been  an  impressive  scene.  Even  Coifi  was  lifted  for 
the  while  out  of  his  sordid  selfishness,  and,  we  are  told, 
''saw  the  truth  shining  out  clearly  in  this  new  teach- 
ing." The  King  no  longer  halted  between  two 
opinions,  and  to  his  demand  as  to  who  should  be  the 
first  to  destroy  the  altars  of  a  discarded  religion. 
''That  will  I  do,"  cried  Coifi.  Calling  for  horse  and 
arms,  the  excited  priest  rode  straight  for  the  heathen 
temple  nearby,  hurled  his  spear  at  it,  and  bade  his 
followers  set  fire  to  it.  The  Nation  now  by  its  Witena- 
gemot  accepted  the  better  religion  of  their  King.  Ed- 
win erected  at  once  a  wooden  chapel  at  York  where 
now  stands  the  stately  and  splendid  Minster,  and  on 
Easter  Eve,  627,  he  was  baptized  in  the  spring  still 
preserved  in  the  crypt  of  the  Cathedral.  This  was 
the  birthday  of  the  Northumbrian  Church.  Among 
the  nobility  baptized  then  with  their  sovereign  was 
his  great  niece,  the  future  illustrious  St.  Hilda  of 
Whitby  Abbey.  Paulinus  was  established  at  York  as 
its  bishop,  and  the  King  began  to  build  a  larger  and 
more  august  church  of  stone  enclosing  the  little  wooden 
structure.  From  this  centre  far  and  wide  through  the 
vast  reeilm  of  King  Edwin,  from  Edinburgh  to  the 

[67] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Humber,  the  bishop  traveled  on  foot,  with  the  good 
James  as  his  deacon,  preaching,  catechising,  baptiz- 
ing his  converts  in  large  numbers  and  laying  a  founda- 
tion on  which  those  who  came  after  him  were  to  build 
up  a  great  and  glorious  church.  His  journeys  ex- 
tended as  far  as  to  Lincoln,  where  soon  arose  a  stone 
church  of  noble  workmanship  not  far  from  that 
** sovereign  hill"  on  which  stands  Lincoln  Cathedral. 
In  this  first  church,  as  Bishop  of  York  and  the  only 
bishop  then  surviving  in  England,  Paulinus  conse- 
crated Honorius  as  the  fifth  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury. 

But  an  appalling  calamity  fell  upon  the  kingdom 
and  Church  of  Northumbria  in  the  year  633,  after  six 
years  of  arduous  pioneer  work  by  Paulinus.  The 
rising  and  able  King  of  Mercia  in  the  midlands  of 
England,  Penda,  well  named  "the  Strenuous,"  the 
uncompromising  foe  of  Christianity  and  champion  of 
the  old  religion,  had  formed  an  alliance  with  Cad- 
wallon  of  Gwynedd,  the  British  find  Christian  King  of 
North  Wales.  He  had  long  thirsted  to  avenge  the 
slaughter  of  his  people  under  an  earlier  Northum- 
brian ruler  Ethelfrid,  who  had  massacred  the  1200 
monks  of  Bangor  Iscoed.  This  powerful  confederacy 
proved  irresistible  even  to  the  strongest  kingdom  of 
the  Heptarchy.  At  Heathfield,  in  Yorkshire,  Edwin 
and  his  son  Osfrid  were  slain  in  battle,  his  army  was 
utterly  routed  and  well  nigh  destroyed.  The  fury  of 
the  conquerors  knew  no  bounds,  and  Cadwallon  ex- 
ceeded even  the  relentless  Penda  in  his  cruel  slaugh- 
ter of  the  hated  English,  sparing  neither  women  nor 

[68] 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

children,  nor  his  own  fellow-Christians  among  the 
Angles.  The  Church  of  Northumbria  was  almost 
wiped  out.  When  the  terrible  tidings  was  brought  to 
Paulinus,  along  with  the  head  of  the  beloved  Edwin, 
the  bishop  fled  with  the  widowed  Queen  Ethelburga 
and  her  daughter  Eanfled  to  Kent,  just  before  the 
Pall  of  Archbishop  of  York  reached  him.  Paulinus 
soon  retired  to  the  vacant  See  of  Rochester,  where  he 
ended  his  days.  Until  the  dawning  of  a  better  day 
and  the  coming  of  a  new  missionary  force  to  Northum- 
bria, only  the  courageous  and  constant  Deacon  James 
seems  to  have  remained  there  to  keep  alive  the  smoul- 
dering fires  of  the  Christian  faith ;  which  would  burst 
erelong  into  a  flame  that  would  enlighten  England 
afresh,  beginning  at  Northumbria. 

The  death  of  the  Christian  King  was  almost  in- 
variably at  this  time  a  death-blow  to  the  Church  of 
his  kingdom,  and  was  followed  by  a  relapse  into 
heathenism.  Indeed  from  the  beginning  of  the  Eng- 
lish Church  the  King  played  a  most  important  part 
in  ecclesiastical  affairs.  But  the  collapse  in  North- 
umbria was  the  worst  blow  which  had  yet  fallen  upon 
the  Roman  missionaries.  Forty  years  after  the  land- 
ing of  Augustine,  his  followers  were  again  shut  up 
within  the  one  kingdom  of  Kent.  A  more  concen- 
trated effort  at  the  start  would  probably  have  pro- 
duced more  permanent  results  than  the  attempt  to 
spread  out  too  widely.  Depth  rather  than  breadth 
was  what  was  now  needed,  and  this  was  what  the  Scots 
would  shortly  supply.  But  before  the  coming  of  the 
Scots,  there  were  two  other  zealous  missionaries  un- 

[69] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

der  the  Roman  dominance,  but  independent — one  of 
them  at  least — of  the  See  of  Canterbury,  who  won 
two  other  kingdoms  of  the  Heptarchy  to  Christ.  To 
these  we  will  now  turn  our  attention  briefly. 

While  Paulinus  was  evangelizing  the  vast  regions 
of  Bernicia  and  Deira  which  constituted  Northum- 
bria,  the  conversion  of  East  Angelia  (Norfolk  and 
Suffolk)  was  going  on,  started  from  another  source. 
An  earlier  effort  from  Canterbury  had  proved  utterly 
abortive.  In  the  time  of  the  good  King  Ethelbert, 
and  under  his  influence,  his  nephew  Redwald,  then 
King  of  East  Anglia,  had  received  Baptism;  but  in 
this  unusual  case  his  queen  was  hostile  to  Chris- 
tianity and  induced  her  husband  to  attempt  a  re- 
markable compromise  between  Christianity  and 
paganism  by  setting  up  in  the  same  temple  an  altar 
to  Christ  and  another  to  the  heathen  deities,  so  that 
his  people,  like  the  ancient  Samaritans,  might  "fear 
the  Lord  and  serve  their  own  gods.'*  The  pioneer 
of  a  new  movement  among  the  East  Anglians  was  a 
monk  from  Burgundy  named  Felix,  who  had  offered 
himself  for  work  among  the  English  to  Honorius, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  had  been  assigned  to 
this  field  as  likely  to  be  a  promising  one.  For  the 
then  King  Sigbert  had  recently  become  a  Christian 
during  a  residence  in  Gaul,  and  Felix  was  warmly 
welcomed  to  his  court.  It  seems  highly  probable  that 
both  Felix  and  Sigbert  had  received  a  missionary  im- 
pulse from  the  Irish  monks  in  Gaul  under  Columban. 
We  hear  now  for  the  first  time  of  the  Gallican  Church 
taking  some  part  in  the  conversion  of  the  English, 
for   neglecting   which   they  had  been   censured  by 

[70] 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

Gregory.  Here  king  and  bishop  worked  together  in 
the  cause  of  Christ,  as  later  in  Northumbria,  and  the 
King  seems  to  have  led  the  way  in  person.  In  631 
Bishop  Felix  established  his  See  at  Dunwich  on  the 
Suffolk  coast  and  built  a  school  and  a  monastery  from 
which  he  evangelized  the  East  Anglians  successfully. 
He  was  also  re-enforced  by  an  Irish  monk  of  noble 
birth,  Fursey,  who  brought  from  Ireland  with  him 
two  brothers  and  two  other  priests.  Fursey  also  was 
welcomed  by  Sigbert,  and  became  greatly  beloved 
by  his  people  for  his  saintly  character  and  effective 
preaching.  This  was  the  first  instance  of  a  union  of 
forces  between  the  Keltic  and  the  Roman  missionaries, 
and  Sigbert  deserves  credit  for  succeeding  where 
Canterbury  had  failed,  especially  as  we  hear  of  op- 
position to  Fursey  from  the  monks  of  Canterbury. 
The  schools  and  monasteries  founded  under  these  mis- 
sionaries soon  furnished  East  Anglia  with  a  native 
clerg>%  who  made  Christianity  a  permanent  power  in 
this  kingdom. 

A  few  years  later,  in  634,  there  landed  in  what  is 
now  Hampshire  the  man  who  did  for  Wessex  what 
Felix  did  for  East  Anglia,  and  a  work  of  greater  im- 
portance because  of  the  dominant  position  which 
Wessex  subsequently  attained  in  England.  This  man 
was  named  Birinus,  an  Italian,  but  in  no  wise  con- 
nected with  the  Canterbury  monks.  He  had  offered 
himself  to  the  then  Pope,  who  had  the  same  name  as  the 
contemporary  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Honorius,  to 
''scatter  the  seeds  of  the  holy  faith  where  no  teacher 
as  yet  had  visited. "    It  is  this  Pope  Honorius  I.,  whose 

[71] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

condemnation  for  holding  the  monothelite  heresy  by 
the  sixth  Ecumenical  Council  and  by  several  later 
popes  stands  somewhat  in  the  way  of  the  modern  doc- 
trine of  Papal  Infallibility.  Pope  Honorius,  fortu- 
nately, was  sounder  on  the  missionary  question  than 
on  some  others,  and  accepted  Birinus  and  had  him 
consecrated  bishop  by  Asterius,  Archbishop  of  Milan, 
sojourning  for  the  while  in  Genoa.  Birinus  found  the 
West  Saxons  heathen  enough  to  satisfy  him.  There 
was  no  need  to  go  further  to  find  a  denser  darkness, 
so  he  set  to  work  here  in  partihus  infidelium.  Birinus 
began  at  the  top,  in  the  usual  style  then,  and  soon  won 
a  royal  convert  in  the  person  of  Cynegils,  King  of 
Wessex,  who  was  duly  baptized  under  very  interest- 
ing circumstances.  Cynegils  had  for  sponsor  no  less 
a  personage  than  the  new  King  of  Northumbria, 
Oswald,  who  was  to  do  so  much  to  win  back  his  people 
to  Christ,  as  we  shall  hear  in  our  next  Lecture.  This 
prince  had  come  to  woo  Cynegil's  daughter  for  his 
own  queen  and  so  he  happened  to  have  the  pleasure 
of  standing  sponser  for  his  future  son-in-law.  Bishop 
Birinus,  with  such  backing  from  royalty,  was  success- 
ful in  making  many  converts  among  nobles  and  people. 
He  established  his  episcopal  seat  at  Dorchester,  where 
the  King  gave  him  ample  lands.  Since  Ethelbert, 
King  of  Kent,  Cynegils  was  the  most  important  acces- 
sion to  the  Church  because  Wessex  afterwards  drew 
to  itself  the  other  kingdoms  until  its  King  was  King 
of  England.  From  this  royal  line  of  Cerdic  the 
Saxon  came  Alfred  the  Great  and  the  English  succes- 
sion straight  down  to  Queen  Victoria  and  her  son  and 
grandson. 

[72] 


A  Supplement  to  Lecture  No.  II 

The  Coming  of  Augustine  and  the  Roman  Mission 
TO  THE  English 

Excursus. 

At  the  opening  of  this  course  of  Lectures  I  spoke 
of  the  English  Church  as  a  principal  agent  in  the 
making  of  the  English  Nation,  and  a  most  potent 
influence  in  the  development  and  history  of  the  Eng- 
lish people,  their  character  and  institutions.  The 
beginning  of  English  Christianity  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  because  of  the  immense  and  far-reaching 
results.  I  have  recently  found  a  remarkable  state- 
ment of  this  by  a  brilliant  French  Roman  Catholic 
writer.  ''In  modem  Europe,*'  says  the  Count  de 
Montalembert,  ''at  a  distance  of  seven  leagues  from 
France,  within  sight  of  our  northern  shores,  there 
exists  a  nation  whose  empire  is  more  vast  than  that 
of  Alexander  or  the  Cessars,  and  which  is  at  once  the 
fiercest  and  most  powerful,  the  richest  and  most  man- 
ful, the  boldest  and  best  regulated  in  the  world.  No 
other  nation  offers  so  instructive  a  study,  so  original 
an  aspect,  or  contrasts  so  remarkable.  She  is  of  all 
the  modem  races  and  of  all  Christian  nations  the 
one  which  has  best  preserved  the  three  fundamental 
bases  of  every  society  which  is  worthy  of  man — the 
spirit  of  freedom,  the  domestic  character,  and  the 
religious  mind.    How,  then,  has  this  nation  in  which 

[73] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

a  perfectly  pagan  pride  survives  and  triumphs,  and 
which  has  nevertheless  remained,  even  in  the  bosom 
of  error,  the  most  religious  of  all  European  nations 
become  Christian?  .  .  .  This  is  surely  a  question 
of  radical  interest  among  all  the  great  questions  of 
history,  and  one  which  takes  new  importance  and  in- 
terest when  it  is  considered  that  upon  the  conversion 
of  England  there  has  depended  and  still  depends, 
the  conversion  of  so  many  millions  of  souls.  English 
Christianity  has  been  the  cradle  of  Christianity  in 
Germany;  from  the  depths  of  Germany,  missionaries 
formed  by  the  Anglo-Saxons  have  carried  the  faith 
into  Scandinavia  and  among  the  Slavs;  and  even  at 
the  present  time,  either  by  the  fruitful  expansion  of 
Irish  orthodoxy,  or  by  the  obstinate  zeal  of  the 
Protestant  propaganda.  Christian  societies  which  speak 
English  and  live  like  Englishmen  come  into  being 
every  day  throughout  North  America,  in  the  two  In- 
dies, in  immense  Australia  and  in  the  Isles  of  the 
Pacific.  The  Christianity  of  nearly  half  the  world 
flows,  or  will  flow,  from  the  fountain  which  first  burst 
forth  upon  British  soil. 

It  is  possible  to  answer  this  fundamental  question 
with  the  closest  precision.  No  country  in  the  world 
has  received  the  Christian  faith  more  directly  from 
the  Church  of  Rome,  or  more  exclusively  by  the  min- 
istration of  monks.  .  .  .  From  whence  came  these 
monks  ?  From  two  very  distinct  sources — from  Rome 
and  Ireland.  English  Christianity  was  produced  by 
the  rivalry,  and  sometimes  by  the  conflict,  of  the 
monastic  missionaries  of  the  Roman  and  of  the  Keltic 

[74] 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

Church."  ("The  Monks  of  the  West,"  Vol.  I.,  Book 
VIII,  pp.  643-647.) 

There  has  been  so  much  confusion  of  mind  and 
inaccuracy  of  statement  about  the  relation  of  the  first 
Church  of  the  English  race  to  the  old  British  Church 
on  the  one  hand,  and  to  the  older  Roman  Church  on 
the  other,  that  we  may  well  attempt  to  make  this 
important  matter  as  plain  as  possible.  The  principal 
source  of  confusion  is  the  vague  word  *^ Keltic.''  The 
Count  of  Montalembert  speaks  of  ''the  Keltic  Church," 
but  tells  us  that  he  means  the  Irish.  But  he  might 
have  meant  the  Britons  or  the  Scotch,  as  these  also 
were  Kelts.  The  term  "Kelt"  or  "Keltic"  is  a 
generic  term,  covering  the  British,  the  Irish  and  the 
Scotch. 

It  was  the  Keltic  Scots  (or  Scotch-Irish)  who  did 
such  noble  and  extensive  work  for  the  conversion  of 
the  English.  But  the  Britons,  who  were  kinsmen  of 
the  Scots  and  Irish,  did  nothing  whatever  for  the 
conversion  of  the  English.  They  held  entirely  aloof 
from  the  English  Church  for  more  than  500  years 
as  is  confirmed  by  all  competent  historians.  I  will 
give  you  a  brief  symposium  of  some  of  our  best 
modern  writers  on  the  subjects  in  question: — The 
following  are  from  William  Hunt's  "History  of  the 
English  Church  from  its  Foundation  to  the  Norman 
Conquest : ' ' 

"The  English  first  received  the  Gospel  directly  from 
Rome,  and  though  men  of  another  race  (The  Scots) 
for  a  time  carried  on  the  work  begun  by  the  Roman 
missionaries,  our  forefathers  owed  their  evangeliza- 

[76] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

tion  to  the  apostolic  zeal  of  the  greatest  of  the  Popes.*' 
(Chap  II.,  p.  16).  Again,  **From  the  British  Church 
no  help  came,  and  it  had  no  share  either  in  the  founda- 
tion or  development  of  the  English  Church."  (Chap. 
III.,  p.  38).  ''It  may  perhaps  be  as  well  to  repeat 
the  warning  that  we  must  not  be  led  by  any  vague 
expression,  such  as  'the  Keltic  Church'  to  confuse 
the  Scots  and  the  Britons.  The  British  Church  con- 
tributed nothing  to  the  evangelization  of  the  Eng- 
lish people.  It  has  been  said,  "The  Roman  planted, 
the  Scot  watered,  the  Briton  did  nothing."  (Chap. 
IV,  p.  74.) 

The  late  Bishop  of  Gibraltar  and  former  Professor 
of  Ecclesiastical  History  in  King's  College,  London, 
W.  E.  Colins,  in  his  Lectures  on  "The  Beginnings  of 
English  Christianity,"  declares,  "That  the  British 
Christians  left  the  English  people  severely  alone  was 
as  much  the  result  of  a  narrow  conception  of  their 
faith  as  of  any  deliberate  malice.  But  the  fact  must 
be  clearly  recognized.  .  .  .  The  English  Church  de- 
rived from  the  first  much  of  her  best  life  from  the 
spiritual  sons  of  the  abbots  of  lona.  But  to  trace 
back  the  origin  of  that  Church  to  the  older  British 
Christianity,  or  to  derive  her  life  from  it  in  any  de- 
gree whatever,  is  to  falsify  history.  .  .  .  The  British 
Church  is  not  the  mother  of  the  English,  but  an  elder 
sister;  and  at  first,  a  very  unfriendly  one.  The  real 
connection  between  them  is  not  a  thing  of  the  sixth 
century,  or  the  seventh  or  the  eighth,  but  of  later 
days;  of  the  centuries  from  the  eleventh  to  the  thir- 
teenth.   They  are  indeed  knit  together  into  one,  but  by 

[76] 


THE  COMING  OF  AUGUSTINE 

the  bonds  of  union,  not  of  birth ;  for  the  older  British 
Church  was  by  degrees  merged  in  the  English,  as  the 
older  British  kingdoms  were."  (*'The  Beginnings  of 
English  Christianity."  pp.  97-98.) 

I  have  quoted  so  often  from  William  Bright 's 
** Chapters  in  Early  English  Church  History"  that 
I  will  give  you  a  quotation  from  one  of  his  numerous 
lesser  works,  ''Way  Marks  in  Church  History:" 
**We  do  not  know  of  a  single  case  in  which  the  British 
Church  as  such  did  anything  for  the  conversion  of 
the  English.  .  .  .  We  may  confidently  say  with  the 
late  Professor  Freeman,  *It  is  contrary  to  all  his- 
torical fact  to  speak  of  the  ancient  British  Church  as 
something  .  .  .  out  of  which  the  Church  of  England 
grew. '  It  is  equally  unhistorical  to  speak  of  the  Welsh 
Episcopate  as  the  'fountain'  of  the  English.  There 
is,  we  may  say  it  with  thankfulness,  a  real  continuity 
between  the  British  and  the  English  Church;  but  it 
consists  in  this,  that  by  slow  degrees — by  a  complex 
process  which  extended  through  some  five  centuries, 
the  English  Church  absorbed  the  British  into  one 
body;  the  older  and  smaller  stream  flowed  into  the 
younger  and  larger,  and  became  a  veritable  and  in- 
separable part  of  it."     ("Waymarks,"  pp.  237-299.) 

Bishop  Collins,  in  an  essay  on  "England  before  the 
Kef ormation, ' '  declares :  "It  need  hardly  be  said  that 
the  illusive  dream  must  be  once  for  all  abandoned 
which  would  regard  'the  British  Church'  as  one  of 
transcendant  purity,  directly  apostolical  in  origin, 
Scriptural  in  doctrine  and  free  from  Papal  corrup- 
tion, and  which  holds  that  this  pure  Church  was  con- 

[77] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

fronted,  displaced  and  superseded  by  a  corrupt  and 
popish  organization.  There  can  be  no  real  question 
that  the  Christianity  which  the  English  received  from 
the  continent  of  Europe  was  far  nobler  than  that 
which  the  Britons  intentionally  withheld  from  them. ' ' 
(''The  Church  Past  and  Present,"  p.  105.) 

The  Rev.  J.  H.  Maude,  in  "The  Foundations  of  the 
English  Church,"  says,  "One  thing  is  certain,  that 
British  Christianity  never  effected,  or  attempted  to 
effect  anything  whatever  towards  the  conversion  of 
the  conquering  English."  .  .  .  (p.  17.) 

Rev.  M.  W.  Patterson,  in  his  "History  of  the 
Church  of  England,"  says,  "The  British  Church  in 
England  contributed  nothing  directly  towards  the 
evangelization  of  the  Anglo-Saxons." 

Dr.  Alfred  Plummer,  in  his  very  recent  work  on 
"The  Churches  in  Britain  before  A.  D.  1000,"  says, 
* '  It  seems  right  to  add  here  a  word  of  caution  against 
the  common  confusion  between  the  British  Church 
and  the  English  Church.  This  mistake  is  still  made, 
even  by  persons  who  undertake  to  instruct  others 
and  therefore  are  specially  bound  to  endeavor  to  be 
accurate ;  and  this  particular  inaccuracy  is  not  a  mere 
slip,  which  any  one  might  pardonably  make,  but  a 
rather  serious  error,  which  it  is  quite  easy  to  avoid. 
In  the  first  ten  centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  the 
British  Church  and  the  English  Church  were  quite 
distinct,  and  had  very  little  to  do  with  one  another, 
although  at  a  much  later  date  they  became  united. 
.  .  .  We  must  carefully  avoid  using  the  expression 
'English  Church'  of  anything  that  existed  earlier 
than  597."     (Vol.  I.,  pp.  16-7.) 

r78] 


Ill 

The  Coming  of  Aidan  and  the  Scotch-Irish  Mission 
TO  THE  English. 

Both  the  kingdom  and  the  Church  of  Northumbria 
had  come  to  grief  when  King  Edwin  fell  on  the  fatal 
field  of  Heathfield  and  Bishop  Paulinus  hastily  de- 
serted his  scattered  flock,  leaving  only  the  faithful 
Deacon  James  to  withstand  the  ravages  of  the  heathen. 
The  year  that  followed  Edwin's  death  might  well  be 
called  'Hhe  Hateful  Year "—'' hateful  to  all  good 
men"  is  the  phrase  of  Bede.  Other  misfortunes  also 
befell  in  that  same  disastrous  year.  For  a  short  time 
the  kingdom  was  again  divided  into  two,  and  came 
under  the  misrule  of  two  scions  of  the  old  line  of 
Ethelf rid  —  Osric  in  Deira  and  Eanfrid  in  Bernicia. 
Both  of  these  became  apostates  from  Christianity, 
repudiating  their  baptism  to  curry  favor  with  Penda, 
King  of  Mercia,  and  with  their  own  pagan  followers. 
Both  of  them  were  soon  slain  by  the  furious  British 
King,  Cadwallon,  the  last  hero  of  the  Britons. 

But  a  brighter  day  and  many  happy  years  came 
to  State  and  Church  when  the  younger  brother  of 
Eanfrid  and  nephew,  on  his  mother's  side,  of  Edwin, 
proved  himself  a  patriotic  and  Christian  prince  by 
boldly  confronting  the  oppressors  of  his  country  with 
*'an  army  small  in  numbers,  but  fortified  by  faith  in 
Christ."  Oswald  assembled  his  army  on  a  hill  aus- 
piciously  known   as   ' ' Heavenfield. "     "The   British 

[79] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

King  Cadwallon,"  we  are  told,  "though  a  Christian, 
had  allied  himself  with  Penda,  the  heathen  King  of 
Mercia,  whom  he  exceeded  in  ferocity.  The  two  allies 
thought  to  destroy  the  Northumbrian  kingdom,  Cad- 
wallon  because  it  was  English,  Penda  because  it  was 
Christian,  and  both  of  them  because  they  coveted  the 
Northumberland  territory."  The  night  before  the 
battle  Oswald,  who  in  his  youth  had  been  an  exile  at 
lona  and  had  become  a  Christian  there,  dreamed  that 
its  founder,  St.  Columba,  appeared  to  him  in  shining 
robe,  shielding  the  English  army  and  promising  vic- 
tory to  them.  With  this  good  omen,  the  next  morning 
the  King  drew  up  his  forces,  and  planting  high  on 
Heavenfield  a  wooden  cross  as  the  standard  for  his 
men,  he  aroused  their  faith  and  courage  by  a  stirring 
appeal, — **Let  us  all  kneel,"  he  cried,  **and  join  in 
prayer  to  the  Almighty,  the  living  and  true  Lord, 
that  of  His  mercy  He  will  defend  us  from  our  proud 
and  cruel  foe,  for  He  knoweth  that  the  cause  for 
which  we  fight  is  just."  Fresh  from  their  prayers 
his  army  charged  the  superior  numbers  of  the  enemy 
with  such  an  impulse  and  pressed  them  so  hard,  that 
the  British,  who  had  hitherto  counted  themselves  in- 
vincible, gave  way,  were  utterly  routed  and  destroyed. 
The  terrible  Cadwallon  himself  fled  from  the  field 
only  to  be  overtaken  and  slain.  A  little  chapel,  called 
**St.  Oswald's,"  now  marks  the  supposed  spot  where 
the  King  set  up  his  cross — the  first  erected  in  Ber- 
nicia.  ** Heavenfield, "  it  was  long  said,  "had  fully 
made  up  for  Heathfield."  Heaven  smiled  once  more 
upon  a  reunited  Northumbria  under  the  wise  and 

[80] 


THE  COMING  OF  AIDAN 

righteous  rule  of  Oswald,  who  was  revered  as  a  saint 
for  centuries  through  all  the  north  country.  And, 
indeed,  he  proved  himself  worthy  of  this  name  by  his 
godly  and  Christian  life,  and  by  his  devoted  public 
and  personal  services  in  restoring  the  Church  to  his 
people.  It  was  not  to  Paulinus,  however,  the  pioneer 
missionary  in  the  field,  that  Oswald  turned  for  help, 
neither  to  Canterbury  nor  Rome.  Few  Roman  mis- 
sionaries were  now  left  in  England.  Fresh  blood  was 
needed  sorely,  and  a  more  ardent  and  unconquerable 
missionary  zeal  than  England  had  yet  seen.  For- 
tunately Oswald  knew  where  to  find  it.  He  turned 
to  his  beloved  lona,  where,  as  a  young  refugee  his 
own  Christian  faith  had  been  kindled.  The  fifth  abbot 
in  succession  from  St.  Columba  was  Seghine  now 
presiding  there — presiding  even  over  the  bishops  at- 
tached to  the  community,  though  himself  a  presbyter — 
for  that  was  long  the  Irish  use  in  their  monasteries. 
It  was  this  very  unusual  use — the  supreme  control 
of  the  abbot  which  Columba  established  in  Scotland; 
where  there  were  still  no  Diocesan  bishops,  but  merely 
bishops  attached  to  the  monasteries  to  ordain  and 
perform  functions  peculiar  to  the  Episcopal  office. 
Such  a  bishop  Seghine  sent  to  Oswald,  but  the  first 
one  sent  was  a  great  failure,  and  was  **sent  back 
empty."  Like  Augustine's  first  band  of  monks,  he 
was  soon  ready  to  turn  back  from  such  a  forlorn  hope. 
He  wanted  to  go  home.  Bede  has  kindly  drawn  a 
veil  over  this  man's  name.  He  was  not  worth  men- 
tioning, but  later  tradition  has  called  him  Corman. 
I  will  give  you  Bede's  account,  which  has  a  whole- 

[81] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

some  lesson  for  the  young  clergyman  in  his  first  mis- 
sionary field :  ' '  It  is  reported  that  when  King  Oswald 
had  asked  a  bishop  of  the  Scots  to  administer  the 
word  of  faith  to  him  and  his  nation,  there  was  first 
sent  to  him  another  man  of  more  austere  disposition, 
who,  meeting  with  no  success  and  being  unregarded 
by  the  English  people,  returned  home,  and,  in  an 
assembly  of  the  elders,  reported  that  he  had  not  been 
able  to  do  any  good  to  the  nation  he  had  been  sent 
to  preach  to,  because  they  were  uncivilized  men  and 
of  a  stubborn  and  barbarous  disposition.  The  elders, 
as  it  is  testified,  in  a  great  council  seriously  debated 
what  was  to  be  done,  being  desirous  that  the  nation 
should  receive  the  salvation  it  demanded,  and  griev- 
ing that  they  had  not  received  the  preacher  sent  to 
them.  Then  said  Aidan,  who  was  also  present  in 
the  council,  to  the  priest  then  spoken  of,  "I  am  of 
opinion,  brother,  that  you  were  more  severe  to  your 
unlearned  hearers  than  you  ought  to  have  been,  and 
did  not  at  first,  conformably  to  the  Apostolic  rule, 
give  them  the  milk  of  more  easy  doctrine,  till  being 
by  degrees  nourished  with  the  Word  of  God,  they 
should  be  capable  of  greater  perfection,  and  be 
able  to  practice  God's  sublimer  precepts.  Having 
heard  these  words,  all  present  began  diligently  to 
weigh  what  he  had  said,  and  presently  concluded  that 
he  (Aidan)  deserved  to  be  made  a  bishop,  and  ought 
to  be  sent  to  instruct  the  incredulous  and  unlearned, 
since  he  was  found  to  be  endued  with  singular  dis- 
cretion, which  is  the  mother  of  other  virtues;  and 
accordingly  being  ordained,  they  sent  him  to  their 

[82] 


THE  COMING  OF  AIDAN 

friend,  King  Oswald,  to  preach;  and  he,  as  time 
proved,  afterwards  appeared  to  possess  all  other  vir- 
tues, as  well  as  the  discretion  for  which  he  was  be- 
fore remarkable.'* 

It  was  thus  that,  thirty  years  after  Augustine's 
death,  in  the  year  635,  little  lona  stepped  in  where 
mighty  Rome  had  nearly  failed.  With  the  coming 
of  Aidan  began  the  Golden  Age  of  saintly  self-devo- 
tion and  evangelistic  fervor  which  was  to  do  so 
much  to  win  England  to  Christ.  While  we  should 
not  under-rate  the  first  noble  impulse  to  England's 
conversion  which  came  straight  from  Gregory  the 
Great  and  from  Rome,  nor  the  organizing  and  uni- 
fying power  of  that  great  Church,  then  the  best  in 
the  world,  which  ultimately  welded  together  into 
one  the  separate  and  scattered  forces  at  work,  it  is 
hard  to  overestimate  the  splendid  services  of  the 
Scottish  saints  who  were  then  altogether  independ- 
ent of  the  Roman  mission  and  a  noble  example  to  it. 
Nor  is  the  secret  of  their  wonderful  success  hard  to 
find.  It  was  the  power  of  their  simple  self-sacrific- 
ing lives  and  of  their  fervid  and  untiring  zeal  in 
preaching  to  others  the  Gospel  which  they  embodied 
in  their  own  Apostolic  lives.  In  his  **  Monks  of  the 
West,"  the  liberal  Roman  Catholic  writer,  Mon- 
talembert,  declares  of  this  period:  ''What  is  dis- 
tinctly visible  is  the  influence  of  Keltic  priests  and 
missionaries  everywhere  replacing  and  seconding 
Roman  missionaries,  and  reaching  districts  which 
their  predecessors  had  never  been  able  to  enter.  The 
stream  of  the  Divine  Word  thus  extended  itself  from 

[83] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

North  to  South,  and  its  slow  but  certain  course 
reached  in  succession  all  the  people  of  the  Hep- 
tarchy. ...  As  to  the  two  Northumbrian  kingdoms 
and  those  of  Essex  and  Mercia,  which  comprehended 
in  themselves  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  territory 
occupied  by  the  German  conquerors,  these  four 
countries  owed  their  first  conversions  exclusively 
to  the  peaceful  invasion  of  the  Keltic  monks,  but 
who,  the  first  obstacles  once  surmounted,  showed 
much  more  perseverance  and  gained  much  more  suc- 
cess. ' ' 

From  the  bleak  and  barren  Island  of  the  North- 
west came  Aidan  to  breathe  a  warmth  and  fructifying 
life  into  what  was  spiritually  a  "wilderness,"  mak 
ing  the  "desert  to  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the  rose," 
— breathing  the  very  spirit  of  the  living  God  into  the 
"dry  bones"  of  the  Northumberland  Church  until 
they  "stood  up  a  great  army."  He  chose  for  the 
new  kind  of  work  which  he  inaugurated  a  new 
centre  more  congenial  to  his  own  taste  and  task. 
It  was  not  at  York,  the  seat  of  the  Roman  Mission 
of  Paulinus,  but  at  a  little  island  like  his  dear  lona 
that  he  established  himself  and  his  monastery  mod- 
elled after  the  simple  but  mighty  one  from  which 
he  had  come.  At  Lindisfarne,  known  later  as  the 
"Holy  Isle,"  he  found  the  retreat  for  prayer  and 
study  so  grateful  to  the  Scotch-Irish  monks,  and  at 
the  same  time  a  place  very  close  to  the  royal  resi- 
dence at  Bamborough  of  Oswald,  henceforth  his 
king  and  beloved  friend  and  fellow-laborer  in  the 
Gospel.    This  was  no  place,  indeed,  to  found  a  great 

[84] 


THE  COMING  OF  AIDAN 

Cathedral  and  administrative  centre  of  a  well-organ- 
ized Diocese ;  and  later  the  See  was  removed  in  883 
to  Chester-le-Street,  and  in  995  to  glorious  Durham. 
But  the  time  for  that  was  not  yet.  Lindisfarne,  like 
Mont  St.  Michel  off  the  coast  of  France,  was  joined 
to  the  mainland  at  low  tide  by  two  miles  of  wet 
sand.  It  suited  well  Aidan's  love  of  retirement  and 
study  and  the  purposes  of  his  episcopal  monastery, 
of  which  he  was  both  Abbot  and  Bishop, — and  which 
he  meant  to  make  the  centre  of  his  missionary  work, 
and  also  a  training-school  for  future  missionaries. 
Here  he  began,  almost  at  once,  to  gather  a  class  of 
twelve  English  lads,  and  to  train  a  succession  of 
native  horn  devoted  missionaries  and  saints,  who  came 
ere  long  to  rival  in  England  the  Ionian  monks.  Out 
of  this  school  came  Eata,  his  own  successor  at  Lin- 
disfarne, the  two  famous  brothers,  Chadd  and  Cedd, 
the  evangelists  of  Southern  England ;  and  Wilfrid, 
the  most  famous  of  Northern  churchmen  and  the 
evangelist  of  Sussex. 

We  may  pause  here  a  moment  to  notice  that,  about 
the  time  when  Aidan's  Northern  School  was 
founded,  we  begin  to  hear  for  the  first  time  of  a 
native-horn  clergy  in  the  South.  ''Evidences  are  not 
wanting,"  says  William  Hunt,  ''that  the  efforts 
made  at  Canterbury  and  at  Dunwich  to  train  up  a 
native  clergy  were  bringing  forth  good  results.  The 
first  bishop  of  English  race,  a  Kentishman  named 
Ithamar,  was  consecrated  by  Honorius  to  the  See 
of  Rochester  in  644,  and  was  not  inferior  to  his  pre- 
decessors either  in  holiness  of  life  or  learning." 

[85] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

''Again,  in  647  Honorius  consecrated  Thomas  from 
Ely  to  succeed  his  former  master  Felix  as  Bishop  of 
the  East  Anglians,  and,  on  his  death,  another  Eng- 
lishman, Berchgils,  a  native  of  Kent.  .  .  .  And,  on 
March  26th,  655,  the  first  English  Archbishop,  a  West 
Saxon  named  Frithonas  was  consecrated  by  Ithamar 
to  the  See  of  Canterbury,  and  took  the  name  of 
Deus  Dedit."  To  return  to  our  narrative  of  Aidan's 
achievements,  until  he  could  educate  out  of  his 
English  boys  a  native  clergy,  he  had  no  lack  of 
clergy  for  immediate  use.  Irish  and  Scotch  monks 
vrere  only  too  eager  to  join  him  in  large  numbers. 
Devotion,  study  and  cultivation  of  the  ground  was 
the  work  of  these  farmer-monks  while  on  the  island ; 
but  they  accompanied  or  followed  their  itinerant 
abbot-bishop  on  his  extensive  and  untiring  mission- 
ary tours  afoot  through  a  vast  region.  Until  he  had 
learned  to  speak  English  himself  Aidan  had  need  of 
an  interpreter,  and  the  King  did  not  disdain  to  dis- 
charge frequently  this  humble  office  in  person. 
King  and  Bishop  often  journeyed  together  on  foot 
through  the  country,  the  Bishop  preaching  and  the 
King  interpreting  to  his  people  the  message  of  the 
Gospel.  It  was  a  rare  sort  of  partnership  in  any 
age  or  country,  and  as  beautiful  and  effective  as  it 
was  rare.  Zerubbabel,  the  son  of  Shealtiel  and 
Joshua,  the  son  of  Jozadak,  did  not  work  together 
more  harmoniously  in  building  the  House  of  the 
Lord,  nor  Moses  and  Aaron  as  the  joint-leaders  of 
the  Israelites  through  the  wilderness,  than  Oswald 
and  Aidan  in  evangelizing  the  Northumbrian  folk. 

[86] 


THE  COMING  OF  AIDAN 

The  King,  it  has  been  said,  was  as  determined  to 
erect  the  cross  in  the  hearts  of  his  people  as  to  plant 
it  on  the  hill  of  Heavenfield.  He  gave  generously 
also  of  money  and  lands  for  churches,  monasteries 
and  schools  throughout  his  realm.  In  all  Bernicia, 
we  are  told,  there  was  not  a  single  church-building 
when  Aidan  came,  and  two  only  are  mentioned  as 
surviving  in  more  favored  Deira.  Many  were  now 
built — simple  structures,  no  doubt  of  wood  thatched 
with  rushes,  which  served  chiefly  as  mission-stations, 
for  parish-churches  were  not  yet.  These  were  served 
mostly  by  travelling  monks,  or  were  connected  with 
monasteries,  which  sprang  up  here  and  there  as  new 
centres  of  study  and  devotion  and  training  schools 
for  the  young  and  future  evangelists.  In  this  way, 
while  the  mission  at  Canterbury  gradually  dwindled 
for  lack  of  laborers,  the  Scotic  mission  grew  apace, 
and  was  soon  ready  to  put  forth  vigorous  ojffshoots 
in  other  Kingdoms.  The  main  secret  of  its  success 
was  undoubtedly  the  beautiful  character  and  win- 
ning personality  of  St.  Aidan.  Although  he  had 
come  to  Northumbria  without  asking  or  receiving 
any  sanction  whatever  from  either  Canterbury  or 
Kome,  and  although  he  adhered  strictly  to  the  Scotic 
uses  of  lona,  to  which  the  Roman  ecclesiastics  ob- 
jected so  strenuously,  his  lovely  disposition  and 
character  were  such  as  to  effectually  disarm  their 
hostility  and  command  their  admiration.  Bede,  who 
was  almost  a  bigot  for  the  Roman  use  and  severely 
critical  of  the  Scotic,  never  questions  the  validity 
of  Aidants  orders  nor  the  Catholicity  of  his  religion 

[87] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

in  things  essential.  He  never  tires  of  singing  the 
praises  of  a  character  so  singularly  free  from  fault 
and  so  winsome  to  all  who  knew  him.  He  tells  us 
also  that  Aidan  was  revered  by  Archbishop  Honor- 
ius  of  Canterbury  and  by  Bishop  Felix  of  East 
Anglia.  The  late  Professor  Bright,  of  Oxford,  in  his 
''Early  English  Church  History,"  has  welded  to- 
gether very  effectively  the  various  passages  of  Bede 
which  bear  upon  the  character  of  Aidan,  and  I  can- 
not do  better  than  to  give  you  some  of  these,  ''  'A 
man,  *  he  begins,  '  of  the  utmost  gentleness,  piety  and 
moderation ; '  and  in  subsequent  passages  he  tells  us 
that  'Aidan  was  earnest  in  promoting  peace  and 
charity,  purity  and  humility,  was  superior  to  anger 
and  avarice,  despised  pride  and  vain  glory,  \vas 
a  conspicuous  example  of  entire  unworldliness, 
strictly  temperate  in  all  his  habits,  sedulous  in  study 
and  devotion,  full  of  tenderness  for  all  sufferers,  and 
of  righteous  sternness  towards  powerful  offenders;' 
that  he  'took  pains  to  fulfil  diligently  the  works  of 
faith,  piety  and  love,  according  to  the  usual  man- 
ner of  all  holy  men,'  and  in  a  word  to  'omit  not  one 
of  the  duties  prescribed  in  the  evangelical,  apostolic, 
and  prophetic  Scriptures,  but  to  perform  them  to 
the  utmost  of  his  power.'  .  .  .  Occasionally  Aidan 
would  retire  for  devotional  solitude  to  the  chief 
islet  of  the  Fame  group  lying  off  Bamborough,  on 
which  in  Bede's  time  'it  was  usual  to  point  out  the 
spot  where  he  was  wont  to  sit  alone.'  We  find  also 
that  he  brought  in  the  practice  of  fasting  on  all 
Wednesdays  and  Fridays  until  3  p.  m.,  except  dur- 

[88] 


THE  COMING  OF  AIDAN 

ing  *the  fifty  days  of  Easter.'  In  his  actual  mission 
work  he  travelled  on  foot,  unless  compelled  by  nec- 
essity to  ride.  This  habit  of  walking  enabled  him 
easily  to  enter  into  conversation  with  any  one  whom 
he  met,  rich  or  poor, — to  win  him  over  if  a  heathen, 
to  encourage  and  exhort  him  if  a  believer.  While 
he  and  his  companions  travelled  they  used  'to  medi- 
tate on  Texts  of  Scripture,  or  recite  Psalms;'  'this 
was  their  daily  work.'.  .  .  In  his  dealings  with  the 
rich  Aidan  showed  his  superiority  to  'fear  or 
favor;'  he  never  witheld  a  rebuke  deserved  by  mis- 
doings of  theirs,  but  always  administered  it  with 
the  authority  befitting  a  bishop.  .  .  .  On  the  other 
hand,  if  a  rich  man  offered  him  money  it  went 
promptly  to  the  poor,  whose  sufferings  were  ever  in 
the  thought  of  this  true  'cherisher  of  the  needy  and 
father  of  the  wretched.' 

One  thing  alone  Bede  could  not  approve  in  Aidan, 
— the  inevitable  Keltic  error  about  the  Pashal  reck- 
oning. .  .  .  'His  keeping  the  Pasch  out  of  its  time 
I  do  not  approve  of  nor  commend.  But  this  I  do 
approve  of,  that  what  he  kept  in  thought,  rever- 
enced, and  preached  in  the  celebration  of  his  Paschal 
festival,  was  just  what  we  do,  that  is,  the  redemption 
of  mankind  through  the  Passion,  Resurrection  and 
Ascension  into  heaven  of  the  Mediator  between  God 
and  man,  the  man  Christ  Jesus.'  " 

The  good  King  Oswald,  like  his  predecessor 
Edwin,  had  his  "Heathfield"  too,  and  after  a  reign 
of  only  eight  glorious  years,  fell  in  battle  with  the 
same  strenuous  pagan,  Penda  of  Marcia,  August  5th, 

[89] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

642,  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight.  The  battle  was 
fought  at  Maserfield  near  the  town  in  Shropshire 
which  still  commemorates  Oswald's  name,  ** Oswes- 
try." His  dying  words  for  his  men  passed  into  a 
proverb,  *'0  God,  have  mercy  on  the  souls!'  said 
Oswald  falling  to  the  ground.  His  head  severed 
from  the  body,  was  recovered  at  Lindisfarne  and 
removed  in  875,  within  the  coffin  of  St.  Cuthbert 
when  the  monks  abandoned  the  island  before  the 
ferocity  of  the  Danes.  William  of  Malmsbury  re- 
lates that  when  the  coffin  of  St.  Cuthbert  was  opened 
in  Durham  in  1104  **the  head  of  Oswald,  king  and 
martyr,  was  found  between  Cuthbert 's  arms."  It 
was  seen  there  again  in  the  present  century,  accord- 
ing to  William  Hunt's  recent  history.  The  late 
Bishop  of  Durham,  Dr.  Lightfoot  in  his  "Leaders 
in  the  Northern  Church,"  has  an  historical  sermon 
on  St.  Oswald  from  the  text,  "Like  unto  him  was 
there  no  king  before  him,  that  turned  to  the  Lord 
with  all  his  heart,  and  with  all  his  soul,  and  with 
all  his  might."  After  drawing  a  striking  parallel 
between  Oswald  and  the  young  King  of  Judah, 
Josiah,  he  quotes  the  following  words  from  the 
book  of  Ecclesiasticus,  merely  changing  the  name  of 
Josiah  to  Oswald: — "The  remembrance  of  Oswald 
is  sweet  as  honey  in  all  mouths,  and  as  music  in  a 
banquet  of  wine.  He  behaved  himself  uprightly  in 
the  conversation  of  the  people,  and  took  away  the 
abominations  of  idolatory.  He  directed  his  heart 
unto  the  Lord,  and  in  the  time  of  the  ungodly  he 
established  the  worship  of  God." 

[90] 


THE  COMING  OF  AIDAN 

Christianity  was  now  too  deep-rooted  in  North- 
umbria  to  be  plucked  up  by  Penda,  nor  was  he 
successful  in  conquering  the  country.  He  laid  siege, 
indeed  to  Bamborough,  but  did  not  succeed  in  tak- 
ing it,  and  shortly  retired  to  other  mischief  else- 
where. Then  the  kingdom  was  again  divided.  A 
brother  of  Oswald  named  Oswy  ruled  in  Bernicia, 
with  Eanfleda,  daughter  of  Edwin  and  grand- 
daughter of  Ethelbert,  for  his  queen.  The  new 
King  of  Deira  was  Oswin,  described  by  Bede  as  the 
ideal  of  kingly  beauty  and  virtue,  who  became  very 
dear  to  Aidan  for  his  resemblance  in  character  to 
Oswald.  The  closing  part  of  Bede's  panegyric  is  as 
follows :  '  ^  The  King  Oswin  was  comely  and  tall ; 
pleasant  of  speech  and  courteous  in  manner;  open 
of  hand  to  all,  whether  noble  or  not  noble.  Thus  it 
came  about  that  all  men  loved  him  for  his  royal 
dignity  of  mind  and  look  and  character;  and  men, 
even  the  most  noble,  flocked  to  his  service  from 
other  provinces.  Among  his  great  qualities  of  valor 
and  moderation  and  peculiar  sweetness,  greatest  of 
all  was  his  humility." 

But  Oswin,  as  Aidan  said  of  him,  was  'Hoo  good 
for  this  world,"  and  it  was  not  long  before  he  joined 
Oswald  in  a  better  world.  He  was  cruelly  betrayed 
and  murdered  by  an  assassin  employed  by  Oswy  of 
Bernicia.  The  crime  of  the  one  King,  and  the  un- 
timely end  of  the  other,  so  full  of  promise,  were 
too  much  for  Aidan,  and  shortened  his  days.  In  the 
closing  part  of  his  espiscopate  he  took  great  pleasure 
in   the   founding   of   a   nunnery   at    Hartlepool   by 

[91] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  saintly  Hilda,  great-niece  of  King  Edwin,  and  in 
helping  the  abbess,  who  was  of  a  kindred  mind,  to 
rule  well  the  new  religious  house.  Twelve  days 
after  the  death  of  Oswin,  while  visiting  at  the 
King's  country  house  near  Bamborough,  Aidan  was 
seized  suddenly  with  mortal  sickness;  and,  before 
he  could  be  moved  to  his  bed-room  in  the  villa,  he 
expired  on  the  ground  under  an  awning  hastily  set 
up  close  to  the  church,  his  head  resting  against  a  post. 
He  died  in  the  seventeenth  year  of  his  episcopate, 
the  last  day  of  the  month  of  August,  651. 

It  is  related  that  an  English  shepherd-boy,  keep- 
ing watch  over  his  flock  by  night  on  the  Lammer- 
moor  hills,  while  his  comrades  slept,  saw  a  vision  of 
angels  bearing  a  soul  to  heaven;  and  a  few  days 
after  learned  that  it  was  at  this  hour  that  God  took 
to  Himself  the  saintly  soul  of  Aidan,  first  bishop  of 
Lindisfarne.  The  shepherd-boy  was  Cuthbert,  and 
the  vision  determined  his  future  life.  He  devoted 
himself  to  the  service  of  God  in  the  monastery  of 
Melrose,  and  later  suceeded  to  Aidan 's  See  at  Lin- 
disfarne and  to  his  work  in  Bernicia. 

Lightfoot  says,  ''Augustine  was  the  Apostle  of 
Kent,  but  Aidan  was  the  Apostle  of  England."  If 
this  statement  be  too  strong,  and  I  think  it  is,  cer- 
tainly the  whole  story  of  the  making  of  the  English 
Church  furnishes  no  lovelier  character,  no  nobler 
missionary  service,  far-reaching  in  its  influence,  than 
those  of  the  Scotic  missionary  and  English  bishop 
rightly  canonized  by  the  Roman  Church  as  ''Saint 
Aidan.'' 

[92] 


THE  COMING  OF  AIDAN 

''The  history,"  says  Bright,  "of  the  Church  in 
Norihumhria  during  the  larger  part  of  the  seventh 
century  is  conspicuously  the  hackhone  of  the  history 
of  the  Church  in  England.  It  is  striking  to  see  how 
the  region  which  was  first  to  come  before  St. 
Gregory's  thoughts  in  regard  to  an  English  mission, 
and  yet,  for  just  thirty  years  was  inaccessible  to 
missionary  attempt,  no  sooner  in  any  sense  accepted 
Christianity  than  it  concentrated  into  itself  the 
chief  interest  of  the  great  drama  of  national  con- 
version; this  being  due,  no  doubt,  in  part  to  the 
relative  scantiness  of  our  information  as  to  other 
districts,  but  also  largely  to  the  force  and  impres- 
siveness  of  the  characters  that  walk  the  Northum- 
brian stage" — I  would  add, — and  to  the  rare  his- 
torian and  biographer  of  Northumbria  and  its 
heroes,  the  unrivaled  Bede. 

In  magnifying,  however,  the  winsome  personality 
of  Aidan,  and  his  glorious  work  for  Northumbria 
and  for  England,  it  is  unnecessary,  however,  unfair, 
and  unhistoric,  to  belittle  the  earlier  work  of  either 
Augustine's  seven  laborious  years  in  Kent  or  of 
Paulinus's  six  untiring  years  in  Northumbria.  Ad- 
mittedly, "Augustine  was  the  Apostle  of  Kent,"  and 
Paulinus  was  the  Apostle  of  Northumbria  in  the 
same  sense,  using  the  word  "Apostle"  in  the  sense 
then  current  of  Pioneer  Missionary,  the  first  in  the 
field,  or  Founder.  And  in  that  same  sense,  Augustine 
was  "the  Apostle  of  England/'  too,  the  first  to  bring 
the  Christian  Gospel  and  Church  to  our  heathen  an- 
cestors the  English  race.    We  know  very  little  about 

[93] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  personality  and  character  of  this  man;  and  what 
we  know  is  not  exactly  fascinating.  Certainly  he 
had  not  the  charm,  the  lovableness,  the  wisdom,  nor 
the  success  of  Aidan  as  a  winner  of  souls  to  God,  or 
of  hearts  to  himself.  But,  none  the  less,  he  was 
Aidan 's  predecessor  in  the  English  field,  as  Paulinus 
was  also  in  the  Northumbrian  field. 

Augustine,  acting  for  and  inspired  by  a  greater 
than  himself,  viz.  Gregory,  the  Great  Bishop  of 
Rome,  did  successfully  lay  a  firm  and  lasting  founda- 
tion of  the  English  Church.  This  Church,  thus 
founded,  has  outlived  all  the  pecularities  and  eccen- 
tricities of  the  Scotch-Irish  missionaries,  except  their 
intense  personal  and  missionary  religion, — which  is 
their  greatest  glory  and  their  imperishable  contribu- 
tion to  the  cause  and  Church  of  Christ.  We  shall  see 
later  that  this  invaluable  contribution  of  theirs  might 
have  been  lost  to  the  English  Church  without  the  sup- 
port of  the  stronger  and  better  organizing  and  cen- 
tralizing and  unifying  genius  of  the  then  Roman 
Church  under  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  its  Bishops, 
Gregory  the  Great. 

The  Christianizing  influence  of  Aidan  was  not  by 
any  means  confined  to  the  sixteen  years  of  his  episco- 
pate. He  did  not  live  to  see  the  largest  results  of 
his  own  labors.  His  immediate  successor  as  bishop 
and  abbot  was  Finan,  a  man  of  more  Irish  temper 
and  less  winning  ways  than  Aidan,  but  one  who  did 
a  faithful  work.  He  replaced  the  very  humble 
church-building  by  one  unpretentious  but  more  suit- 
able to  the  episcopal  See,  and  constructed  it  in  the 

[94] 


THE  COMING  OF  AIDAN 

Scotic  fashion,  not  of  stone,  but  entirely  of  hewn  oak, 
with  a  covering  of  reeds.  He  put  some  oak  also  into 
his  stubborn  refusal  to  comply  with  those  who  began 
to  demand  his  compliance  with  the  Roman  Easter. 
The  thirteen  years  that  followed  Aidan's  death  wit- 
nessed a  vast  enlargement  of  his  work  throughout 
Northumbria,  its  extension  south  of  the  Humber,  and 
into  the  vast  regions  of  the  midlands.  It  soon  found 
lodgment  within  the  very  household  of  Penda  him- 
self, and  thence  pervaded  his  realm,  the  last  strong- 
hold of  heathenism.  Mercia  comprised  all  the  mid- 
land part  of  Britain,  having  Northumbria  on  the 
north,  Wessex  and  Sussex  on  the  south,  Wales  on  the 
west,  and  east  Anglia  on  the  east. 

The  Matrimonial  method  of  propagating  the  faith 
was  still  the  English  fashion,  and  broke  out  again 
in  fresh  quarters.  In  the  case  now  to  be  reported 
a  double  marriage  took  place  in  two  very  important 
families.  Oswy,  now  King  of  reunited  Northumbria, 
married  his  son  to  Penda 's  daughter,  and  his  daugh- 
ter Alchfleda  to  Peada,  Penda 's  son,  "an  excellent 
youth,"  on  the  usual  condition  that  she  would  have 
the  right  to  retain  her  own  religion.  Peada,  now 
King  of  the  Middle  Angles,  was  prepared  to  go  fur- 
ther, and  declared,  **I  will  be  a  Christian,  whether 
I  obtain  the  maiden  or  not" — a  resolution  which  I 
commend  highly  to  the  young  men  before  me.  Peada 
was  accordingly  baptized,  with  his  attendants,  and 
took  home  with  him  a  band  of  Christian  monks  from 
Aidan's  school.  The  four  learned  and  zealous 
priests  who  returned  with  him  to  his  own  kingdom 

[95] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

to  propagate  his  new  faith  were  Diuma,  a  Scot,  and 
three  Englishmen,  natives  of  Northumbria,  Cedd, 
Adda  and  Betti.  They  had  great  success  among  the 
middle  Anglians,  and  won  many  converts  of  all 
classes.  Even  Penda  began  at  last  to  relent  in  his 
inflexible  hostility,  and  allowed  missionaries  in  his 
own  Mercia,  declaring  that  his  main  objection  was 
not  to  true  Christians,  but  false  ones — ''The  mean 
wretches,"  he  called  them,  "who  have  put  their 
faith  in  this  new  God,  and  then  will  not  trouble 
themselves  to  obey  Him" — an  old  and  ever  new 
stumbling  block  to  the  progress  of  Christ's  Gospel. 

The  conversion  of  the  East  Saxons  soon  followed, 
and  Essex,  from  which  Mellitus,  the  Roman  bishop 
of  London,  had  been  rudely  expelled,  now  welcomed 
the  Scotic  missionaries.  Oswy  of  Northumbria  tried 
to  atone  for  his  sin  in  procuring  the  death  of  his 
rival  Oswin  by  doing  all  he  could  for  the  cause  of 
Christianity.  The  then  King  of  the  East  Saxons — 
another  Sigbert — was  a  close  friend  of  Oswy's  and 
a  frequent  visitor  at  his  court,  where  Oswy  used  his 
influence  to  make  him  a  Christian.  Sigbert  became 
a  convert,  and  was  baptized  by  Bishop  Finan,  and 
asked  for  missionaries  to  convert  his  people.  These 
were  now  in  such  demand  from  various  quarters 
that  the  supply  at  Lindisfarne  began  to  run  short. 

So  Finan  transferred  Cedd  to  Essex,  and  gave  him 
another  monk  to  help  him.  They  had  such  encour- 
aging success  that  Finan,  in  conjunction  with  two 
other  Scottish  bishops,  consecrated  Cedd  bishop  of 
the  East  Saxons  in  654.    Bede,  with  all  his  prejudice 

[96] 


THE  COMING  OF  AIDAN 

against  the  peculiarities  of  the  Scotic  Church,  evi- 
dently found  no  shadow  of  a  flaw  in  the  validity 
of  their  espiscopal  orders.  His  language  here  is  worth* 
quoting :  —  "  Finan,  on  learning  how  the  work  of  the 
Gospel  prospered  with  Cedd,  made  him  bishop,  hav- 
ing called  in  two  other  bishops  to  assist  him  in  the 
ordination.  Cedd,  having  received  the  degree  of 
the  episcopate,  returned  to  his  province,  and  ful- 
filling with  greater  authority  the  work  which  he 
had  begun,  made  churches  in  different  places,  or- 
daining priests  and  deacons  to  assist  him  in  the 
work  of  faith."  It  has  been  objected  that  it  was  the 
usual  custom  of  the  Scots  for  only  one  bishop  to 
consecrate  to  the  episcopate.  In  this  case,  at  least, 
three  are  expressly  mentioned,  and  we  have  already 
seen  that  the  Roman  missionaries  in  England  had 
several  times,  and  with  papal  sanction,  consecrated 
to  the  Episcopal  office  and  to  the  archbishopric  by 
the  hands  of  a  single  bishop.  Spite  of  the  Nicene  de- 
cree that  such  consecrations  should  be  by  not  less 
than  three  bishops,  consecration  by  a  single  bishop 
was  not  considered  invalid.  Gregory  had  expressly 
permitted  it  to  Augustine  until  he  should  have  three 
or  four  bishops  in  England  to  unite  with  him.  "As 
a  matter  of  fact  in  England  Augustine  consecrated 
the  three  bishops  who  afterwards  succeeded  him  at 
Canterbury,  Lawrence,  Mellitus  and  Justus  without 
assistants, — Justus  consecrated  Paulinus,  Paulinus 
consecrated  Honorius  the  fifth  Archbishop,  and 
Ithamar  consecrated  Deusdedit  the  sixth  Archbishop 
also,  without  assistants,  not  to  mention  other  cases, 

[97] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

such  as  the  early  consecrations  of  Theodore.*'  (J.  H. 
Mande.) 

There  is  no  evidence  that  Cedd  undertook  to  es- 
tablish his  own  Episcopal  seat  at  London,  the  orig- 
inal See,  or  even  that  he  had  any  definite  and  official 
See.  He  appears  to  have  resided  mostly  with  his 
monks  attached  to  two  main  monasteries  and  centres 
of  missionary  work — the  one  at  a  place  which  Bede 
calls  Ythanceaster,  and  the  other  at  Tilbury.  He  is 
also  reported  to  have  resorted  frequently  to  Deira 
on  preaching  tours,  and  to  have  received  from  the 
King  the  site  of  a  monastery  which  he  founded  at 
Lastingham,  then  a  wild  and  weird  spot  amidst  *Hhe 
haunts  of  robbers  and  the  lairs  of  wild  beasts  rather 
than  the  dwellings  of  men."  This  subsequently  be- 
came a  favorite  resort  of  Cedd,  who  seems  to  have 
imbibed  the  Scotic  love  of  retirement  and  to  have 
divided  his  time  between  his  new  monastery  here 
and  his  episcopal  work  in  Essex.  In  the  faithful 
discharge  of  the  latter  we  find  one  of  the  earliest 
cases  in  Englamd  of  the  exercise  of  episcopal  severity 
which  went  to  the  extreme  point  of  excommunica- 
tion. The  questions  of  Marriage  and  Divorce 
troubled  the  Church  then  as  now,  and  called  for 
extreme  methods.  Cedd  had  excommunicated  one 
of  Sigbert's  nobles  and  kinsmen  for  adhering  to  an 
unlawful  marriage.  He  was  cut  off  from  social  in- 
tercourse with  all  churchmen.  The  King,  however, 
ventured  to  accept  an  invitation  to  the  house  of  the 
offender.  Returning  from  a  dinner  party  there,  he 
met  the  irate  bishop,  leaped  in  terror  from  his  horse, 

[98] 


THE  COMING  OF  AIDAN 

knelt  and  craved  the  bishop's  forgiveness.  But  the 
inflexible  prelate,  touching  the  royal  transgressor 
with  a  stick  that  he  held  in  his  hand,  predicted  the 
King's  death  in  the  house  from  which  he  had  just 
come.  And  indeed  this  man,  so  recently  his  host, 
brought  about  shortly  the  murder  of  Sigbert  in 
revenge  for  what  he  considered  the  craven  conduct 
on  the  part  of  the  King.  But  Sigbert 's  untimely 
death  did  not,  as  in  many  previous  cases,  check  the 
progress  of  Christianity  in  the  kingdom.  It  went 
steadily  forward  under  his  successor. 

But  while  Cedd  was  pursuing  his  mission  of  peace 
in  Essex,  Penda  the  irrepressible,  was  at  his  old 
tricks  again,  and  was  on  the  war-path  for  the  last 
time.  Already  he  had  recently  invaded  East  Anglia, 
slain  its  Christian  King  Anna,  and  set  up  Anna's 
unworthy  brother  Ethelhere  as  the  conqueror's 
vassal,  using  him  also  as  an  ally  for  another  in- 
vasion of  Northumbria.  Spite  of  the  intermarriages 
between  Oswy's  family  and  Penda 's,  spite  of  Oswy's 
efforts  for  peace,  his  offers  of  priceless  gifts  and  of 
his  own  son  as  hostage,  nothing  availed  to  satisfy 
Penda 's  passion  for  overrunning  and  annihilating 
the  Northumbrians.  Then  Oswy  braced  himself  up 
for  a  final  conflict  which  could  no  longer  be  averted, 
crying  out,  ''If  the  pagan  will  not  accept  our  gifts, 
let  us  offer  them  to  Him  who  will,  the  Lord  our 
God."  Then  he  made  a  vow  that  if  God  would  give 
him  victory  over  his  enemies,  he  would  dedicate 
to  the  monastic  life  his  little  girl  Elfled,  and  would 
give  the  lands  for  the  building  of  no  less  than  twelve 

[99] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

monasteries.  With  this  doubtful  act  of  piety  Oswy 
prepared  to  meet  Penda  and  his  allies,  including 
again  princes  of  the  Britons,  of  the  Picts  also,  and 
the  new  renegade  Christian  ally,  Ethelhere  of  Essex. 
They  came  on,  swarming  like  locusts,  thirty  legions 
in  all,  each  under  its  own  chief.  The  two  unequal 
armies  met  at  Winwidfield,  and  there  Penda,  who 
in  twenty-two  years  had  killed  five  important  kings, 
all  Christians  and  all  Angles,  made  the  last  stand 
for  heathenism  in  England  until  the  coming  of  the 
Danes.  His  vast  army  was  swept  utterly  away  by 
the  inferior  force  under  Oswy.  ''The  stars  in  their 
courses,"  and  the  waters  in  their  wrath  fought 
against  the  heathen  hosts.  The  most  formidable  foe 
of  Northumbria  and  of  Christianity  was  smitten 
down  to  rise  no  more,  and  with  him  fell  most  of  his 
chieftains.  So  perished  on  that  day  the  enemies  of 
the  Lord  by  the  waters  of  the  Winwaed.  Just  as  the 
river  of  Kishon  swept  away  the  forces  of  Sisera,  so 
the  Winwaed  waters,  we  are  told,  swollen  into  a  flood 
by  recent  rains,  swept  away  the  Mercians,  swept 
away  ''many  more  in  their  flight  than  the  sword  had 
destroyed  while  fighting. ' '  The  battle  of  Wingfield,  as 
it  was  generally  called,  November  15th,  655,  is  called 
by  Freeman  "a  turning-point  in  the  history  of  our 
island."  With  the  fall  of  Penda  came  the  indepen- 
dence of  Northumbria.  ' '  With  Penda, ' '  says  Milman, 
"fell  Paganism." 

Oswy  the  Conqueror  now  redoubled  his  efforts  for 
the  advancement  of  the  victorious  faith,  not  only 
in  his  now  secure  Kingdom,  but  also  in  that  of  the 

[100] 


THE  COMING  OF  AIDAN 

fallen  Penda,  Mercia,  which  came  for  some  time  un- 
der his  control  as  overlord.  He  kept  strictly  the  vow 
made  before  the  battle  of  Wingfield.  Of  the  twelve 
monasteries  which  he  founded,  six  were  located  in 
Bernicia,  and  the  other  six  in  Deira — ''wherein 
earthly  warfare  should  cease,  and  in  which  there 
should  be  a  perpetual  residence  and  subsistence  for 
monks  to  follow  the  warfare  w^hich  is  spiritual,  and 
pray  diligently  for  the  peace  of  the  nation."  Os- 
wy's  daughter  Elfled  was  duly  given  up  to  Hilda 
at  Hartlepool  to  become  ''first  a  learner  and  then  a 
teacher  of  the  monastic  life." 

Before  we  pass  out  of  Northumbria  to  note  the 
establishment  of  Christianity  in  Mercia,  we  may  well 
pause  for  a  moment  to  contemplate  the  character  and 
work  of  that  gracious  Lady  Hilda,  Abbess  first  of 
Hartlepool  and  afterwards  of  far-famed  Whitby  Ab- 
bey. We  have  already  noticed  the  remarkable  influ- 
ence exerted  by  Christian  women  who  married  kings 
of  heathen  realms.  But  single  women  also,  conse- 
crated to  perpetual  virginity,  played  no  insignificant 
part  in  the  Christian  work  of  our  ancestors.  The 
most  conspicuous  instance  of  this  was  St.  Hilda  who 
came  of  the  royal  family  of  Northumbria,  and  spent 
her  early  life  at  court,  but  devoted  the  rest  to  minister- 
ing to  the  poor,  and  especially  to  promoting  the  cause 
of  religious  education.  In  this  repsect  her  career  was 
one  of  the  most  illustrious  of  all  the  founders  of  the 
English  Church.  Bishop  Lightfoot  does  not  hesi- 
tate to  rank  her  among  the  three  most  potent  per- 
sonages in  the  early  Northumbrian  Church — Oswald 

[101] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  King,  Aidan  the  Bishop,  and  Hilda  the  Abbess. 
He  ranks  her,  indeed,  **  among  the  chief  makers  of 
England  in  the  childhood  of  the  English  nation,'' 
and  says: — *'"With  the  tact  and  sympathy  of  a  wo- 
man, she  united  the  sound  judgment  and  self- 
restraint  of  a  man.  The  great  and  lowly  alike  were 
drawn  towards  her.  Kings  and  princes  sought  her 
advice  in  the  perplexities  of  statesmanship ;  bishops 
exchanged  spiritual  counsels  with  her.  Monasteries 
were  then  the  sole  depositories  of  knowledge,  and 
the  sole  schools  of  learning.  The  religious  house 
with  which  she  was  connected  was  twofold.  There 
was  a  side  for  women,  and  a  side  for  men — an  ar- 
rangement not  uncommon  in  those  days.  The  chiv- 
alry of  their  Christianity  and  of  their  race  gave  the 
precedence  to  women.  Hilda  ruled  over  both.  Her 
house  was  a  great  training-school  for  the  clergy. 
Not  less  than  five  of  her  pupils  became  bishops  of 
important  Sees  —  two  of  York,  one  of  Dorchester, 
one  of  "Worcester,  and  one  of  Hexham.  This  last 
was  the  famous  St.  John  of  Beverley.  What  wonder 
that  all  who  came  near  her  saluted  her  with  the 
endearing  name  of  *  Mother'  —  a  title  not  yet,  it 
would  seem,  given  by  virtue  of  their  office  to  Ab- 
besses of  religious  houses,  but  specially  accorded  to 
her,  as  we  are  told,  by  reason  of  her  signal  piety  and 
grace.  She  was  indeed  'a  Mother  in  Israel.'  Nor 
is  it  only  as  a  school  of  theology,  a  nursery  of  clergy, 
that  her  house  demands  our  respect.  Here  English 
literature  was  cradled.  The  earliest  of  English  poets, 
Caedmon  received  under  Hilda  the   training   and 

[102] 


THE  COMING  OF  AIDAN 

the  inspiration  which  transformed  him,  like  Amos 
of  old,  from  a  simple  cowherd  into  a  prophet  and 
teacher  of  men.** 

Let  us  now  proceed  to  notice  briefly  the  measures 
taken  for  the  conversion  of  the  two  other  kingdoms 
of  the  Heptarchy — Mercia  and  Sussex.  Mercia  had 
now  come  under  the  authority  of  Oswy  as  Bret- 
walda.  He  allowed  his  son-in-law  Peada,  son  of 
Penda,  to  continue  as  under-king  of  the  Middle  An- 
glians  in  Southern  Mercia.  We  have  already  seen 
how  the  conversion  of  this  part  was  successfully 
begun  by  the  four  missionaries  from  Lindisfarne 
who  followed  Peada  thither  at  the  time  of  his  mar- 
riage. This  work  went  on  prosperously  until  the 
tragedy  of  Peada  *s  death,  who  was  assassinated 
with  the  probable  connivance  of  his  wife.  Nor  was 
the  cause  of  Christianity  checked  by  this  unhappy 
affair,  for  all  Mercia  remained  for  three  years  longer 
under  Oswy*s  personal  rule.  Then  the  Mercians  rose 
against  Oswy,  and  regained  their  independence, 
with  a  younger  brother  of  Peada  named  Wulfhere 
as  King.  The  return  to  the  old  dynasty  did  not 
affect  the  progress  of  Christianity,  for  as  Bede,  him- 
self a  Northumbrian,  observes  with  characteristic 
generosity  **free  and  with  a  king  of  their  own  the 
Mercians  joyfully  served  Christ  the  true  King.*' 
Wulfhere  was  himself  a  Christian  and  a  zealous 
promotor  of  its  progress  during  the  sixteen  years  of 
his  reign,  and  thereby  the  rest  of  Mercia  was  success- 
fully evangelized.  One  of  Peada  *s  first  mission- 
aries, Diuma  a  Scotchman  had  already  been  conse- 
[103] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

crated  a  bishop  by  Finan.  Later  he  was  succeeded 
by  another  monk  from  Lindisfarne,  Trumhere,  an 
Englishman.  We  are  also  told  that  a  rich  and  noble 
monk  named  Saxulf,  about  this  time,  built  and  be- 
came first  Abbot  of  a  famous  and  influential  mon- 
astery for  central  England  at  Peterborough.  Wulf- 
here  gradually  extended  his  sway,  and  used  his 
power  also  to  extend  his  religion  with  it,  especially 
in  Hampshire  and  the  Isle  of  Wight,  which  he  con- 
quered. Both  these  new  possessions  passed  to  the 
King  of  the  South  Saxons,  Ethelwalch,  who  was  per- 
suaded to  receive  baptism,  but  it  does  not  appear 
to  have  had  much  effect  upon  Sussex.  He  either 
would  not,  or  could  not  gain  any  converts  among  his 
own  people.  Sussex  was  last  of  all  the  English 
kingdoms  to  receive  the  Gospel,  and  when  they  did 
finally  receive  it,  it  came  not  from  their  next-door 
neighbors  at  Canterbury,  but  from  far-off  North- 
umbria. 

The  conversion  of  Sussex  did  not  begin  until 
twenty  years  later,  but  we  will  take  it  out  of  its 
chronological  order  in  order  to  complete  our  survey 
of  Christianity  in  the  several  kingdoms  of  the  Hep- 
tarchy. This  was  one  of  the  oldest  of  all  the  king- 
doms, but  was  one  of  the  smallest,  and  had  long  been 
one  of  the  most  backward  in  coming  forward,  not  only 
in  receiving  the  Gospel,  but  also  in  its  national  life. 
Cut  off  by  its  impenetrable  forests  and  marshes,  it 
had  remained  almost  untouched  by  all  that  was  go- 
ing on  in  the  rest  of  England,  its  people  as  barbar- 
ous as  when  they  first  landed  here.    The  king  and 

[104] 


THE  COMING  OF  AIDAN 

queen,  indeed,  were  nominal  Christians,  and  had 
received  into  their  realm  a  settlement  of  half  a  dozen 
Irish  monks  with  Dical  as  Abbot,  but  even  the  Irish 
fire,  which  had  kindled  a  flame  in  so  many  other 
lands,  seemed  almost  extinguished  by  the  coldness 
of  the  South  Saxons.  The  monks  had  eimply  settled 
down  in  a  monastery  at  Bosham  to  hold  the  fort 
until  better  days  should  come.  This  was  the  forlorn 
situation  of  Sussex  spiritually  when  "the  man  and 
the  hour  arrived  again" — when  one  of  the  most 
famous  ecclesiastics  of  England,  or  Europe,  himself 
in  evil  case  then,  took  refuge  there  in  the  year  681 
from  his  enemies,  who  were  many  and  mighty.  We 
shall  hear  more  of  the  new-comer,  for  his  career  was 
an  eventful  and  stormy  one  which  shook  the  whole 
western  Church. 

He  was  a  man  of  rare  ability  and  varied  accom- 
plishments, trained  in  the  school  of  Lindisfarne,  but 
an  uncompromising  advocate  of  Rome.  He  was  a 
native  of  Northumbria,  and  had  been  bishop  there. 
Indeed  he  had  already  held  not  a  few  of  the  high- 
est ecclesiastical  positions  in  England.  In  the  inter- 
vals between  his  various  episcopates,  his  numerous 
and  extensive  travels,  his  frequent  fights,  his  im- 
prisonments and  flights,  his  ups  and  downs  gen- 
erally, Wilfrid  of  York  once  in  a  while  proved  him- 
self a  most  devoted  and  effective  missionary  in  a 
most  unpromising  field.  He  had  already  attempted 
the  conversion  of  the  ferocious  Frisians.  And  now, 
on  the  dreary  coast  of  Sussex,  this  fallen  prelate 
of  the  North,  himself  in  evil  case,  finds  a  field  where 

[105] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

none  had  gathered  any  harvest  before  him,  and  he 
simply  did  the  job.  Some  fifteen  years  before,  he 
had  been  wrecked  on  this  same  inhospitable  coast,  and 
**the  barbarous  people  had  showed  him  no  little  un- 
kindness"  then,  and  he  had  barely  escaped  with 
his  life  from  these  savage  Saxons.  Now  he  seizes 
the  opportunity  to  return  good  for  evil,  and  to  save 
the  lives  as  well  as  the  souls  of  his  former  captors.  It 
has  been  well  said  of  Wilfrid,  that  he  was  at  his 
best  in  adversity.  Prosperity  seemed  to  spoil  him. 
Thomas  Fuller  writes  quaintly,  **As  it  is  observed  of 
nightingales,  that  they  sing  the  sweetest  when  far- 
thest from  their  nests,  so  this  Wilfrid  was  most  dili- 
gent in  God's  service  when  at  the  greatest  distance 
from  his  own  home.**  You  may  have  noticed,  more 
probably  of  some  other  man  than  of  yourself,  that  he 
was  a  better  Christian  elsewhere  than  in  his  own 
home.  Things  were  about  at  their  worst  in  Sussex 
when  Wilfrid  turned  up  this  time.  No  rain  had 
fallen  for  three  years,  gaunt  famine  was  stalking 
through  the  land,  and  hunger  was  driving  the  people 
to  suicide.  In  parties  of  fifty,  we  are  told,  they 
would  join  hands,  and  cast  themselves  headlong  into 
the  sea  to  escape  the  pangs  of  hunger.  The  sea  was 
swarming  with  fish,  but  these  silly  folk  had  not  wit 
enough  to  catch  any  thing  but  a  few  eels  in  shallow 
water.  Wilfrid  was  a  versatile  man,  and  fisherman 
enough  to  catch  both  fish  and  men.  He  soon  showed 
the  dull  Saxons  the  art  of  deep-sea  fishing, — showed 
them  how  to  join  together  their  little  eel-nets  into 
a  big  drag-net,  and  thrust  out  into  the  sea  for  a 

[106] 


THE  COMING  OF  AID  AN 

draught  worth  having.  The  result  was  like  that  of 
the  Master's  word  on  the  Galilean  Lake  when  they 
had  toiled  all  the  night  and  taken  nothing. 

Three  hundred  fish  at  a  catch  the  famishing 
heathen  hauled  ashore,  and  Wilfrid  was  hailed  as 
their  deliverer.  ''By  which  good  service,"  says 
Bede,  who  knew  how  to  make  a  story  end  well,  **the 
prelate  turned  their  hearts  powerfully  to  love  him, 
and  they  were  the  readier  to  listen  hopefully  to  his 
preaching  about  heavenly  benefits,  after  they  had 
through  his  agency  received  temporal  good."  When 
the  drought  broke  up  on  the  day  that  his  first  con- 
verts received  baptism,  and  there  was  abundance  of 
rain,  that  settled  it  for  the  conversion  of  the  Saxons. 
They  hailed  him  as  if  he  had  been  Elijah.  *'And 
so,"  says  Bede,  "having  cast  off  their  old  supersti- 
tions and  renounced  their  idoltary,  the  heart  and 
flesh  of  the  people  rejoiced  in  turning  to  the  living 
God,  understanding  that  He  who  is  the  true  God 
had  enriched  them  by  his  heavenly  grace  with  both 
inward  and  outward  blessings."  The  King  rewarded 
the  Apostle  of  his  people  by  bestowing  upon  him  a 
royal  villa  for  his  residence  and  with  it  a  spacious 
domain  and  all  its  belongings,  the  promontory  of 
Selsey,  which  he  made  a  monastery  and  episcopal  See, 
which  became  the  centre  of  a  successful  and  per- 
manent missionary  work.  It  remained  the  See  of 
Sussex  until  the  Norman  Conquest,  when  it  was 
removed  to  Chichester,  where  it  now  is.  We  are  told 
of  another  act  of  Wilfrid's,  which  also  shows  him 
again  at  his  best.    A  part  of  the  royal  donation  to 

[107] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

him  at  Selsey  consisted  of  two  hundred  and  fifty- 
persons  **as  bondsmen  and  bondswomen;  he  saved 
them  all  by  baptizing  them  from  slavery  to  the 
devil,  and  by  granting  them  their  liberty  set  them 
free  from  the  yoke  of  slavery  to  man."  And  Bede 
closes  this  charming  story  with  the  words,  *'For 
five  years  Wilfrid  exercised  in  these  parts  the  office 
of  the  episcopate,  both  by  words  and  by  deeds,  de- 
servedly honored  by  all.*' 


[108] 


IV 

The    Coming-Together    op    the    Roman    and    the 

Scotch-Irish    Missions    to    Make    the 

English  Church 

We  have  seen  how  the  Christian  religion  had 
reached  the  various  Anglo-Saxon  tribes  in  England, 
and  gradually  overspread  the  whole  Heptarchy, 
from  two  separate  sources  far  apart — from  Rome 
by  way  of  Canterbury  in  the  South,  and  from  lona 
by  way  of  Lindisfarne  in  the  North.  These  two 
streams  of  evangelizing  influence  had  hitherto 
flowed  apart,  although  occasionally  coming  close  to- 
gether in  several  of  the  kingdoms.  Felix  and  Fursey 
had  worked  peaceably  side  by  side  in  East  Anglia. 
Aidan's  gentle  and  fraternal  spirit  had  prevented 
friction  between  the  Keltic  and  the  Roman  factions 
in  Northumbria,  and  under  Finan  his  successor  there 
had  been  no  outbreak.  But  Colman,  the  next  bishop 
of  Lindisfarne,  found  the  Roman  party  steadily 
growing  in  power  and  prestige;  and  he  himself,  al- 
though of  saintly  character,  seems  to  have  lacked 
the  conciliating  spirit  of  his  predecessors.  In  his 
time  the  differences  of  ecclesiastical  custom  between 
the  Scottish  and  the  Roman  missionaries  broke  out 
into  open  and  stormy  disputation.  Their  differences 
appear  to  us  very  unimportant  and  even  trivial,  not 
touching  in  the  least  the  fundamentals  of  Catholic 

[109] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

faith  and  Apostolic  order.  They  were  merely  ques- 
tions about  the  proper  time  of  keeping  Easter,  about 
the  ceremonials  of  baptism  and  the  shape  of  the 
priestly  tonsure — the  Romans  shaving  only  the 
crown  of  the  head  in  circular  fashion,  and  the  Scots 
shaving  across  the  forehead  from  ear  to  ear  in  the 
shape  of  a  crescent.  It  was  the  first  Ritualistic  con- 
troversy in  England,  but  not  the  last.  In  a  recent 
book  on  **The  Foundations  of  the  English  Church,'* 
by  J.  H.  Maude,  he  says,  * '  It  was  merely  an  uninten- 
tional divergence  of  practice  entirely  due  to  absence 
of  communication.  .  .  .  The  present  age,  however, 
can  hardly  afford  to  assume  any  airs  of  superiority 
in  this  matter,  or  to  regard  it  as  strange  that  small 
matters  of  detail  should  excite  strong  feeling.''  The 
distinguished  Thomas  Hodgkin,  author  of  ''Italy 
and  Her  Invaders,"  himself  a  Quaker,  says  naively, 
' '  There  is  a  well-known  law  of  Theological  dynamics 
that  the  bitterness  of  feeling  between  rival  churches 
is  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  magnitude  of  the 
issues  between  them." 

Underneath  these  superficial  differences  of  prac- 
tice, however,  which  might  have  been  adjusted,  there 
lay  a  deeper  issue  and  the  real  bone  of  contention — 
the  question  of  Roman  dominance,  or  ecclesiastical 
independence.  Neither  the  old  British  Church  of  the 
Roman  province,  nor  the  Keltic  churches  in  Ireland 
and  Scotland  had  known  any  thing  of  the  authority 
of  the  Roman  See  in  Great  Britain — except,  rather 
vaguely,  perhaps,  the  generally  acknowledged  Pri- 
macy of  that  See  in  order  of  time  and  importance,  and 

[110] 


THE  COMING-TOGETHER 

its  recognition  as  the  model  church  of  the  West. 
There  was  a  deference  generally  paid,  too,  to  its 
decisions  on  appeal  in  important  matters  of  disci- 
pline and  its  letters  of  advice  (called  "decretals"), 
which  had  not  yet  become  letters  of  command.  But 
the  great  distance  of  the  Keltic  churches  from  Rome 
and  the  lack  of  communication,  especially  after  the 
retirement  of  the  imperial  government  from  Britain 
and  the  chaos  of  the  English  invasions,  must  have 
rendered  any  Papal  letters  to  these  parts  practically 
"dead  letters."  But  with  the  coming  of  Augustine, 
came  plenty  of  letters  from  the  Pope,  live  letters, 
too,  and  very  good  ones,  for  which  we  owe  him  an 
everlasting  debt  of  gratitude.  The  best  letter  of  all, 
however,  was  the  one  which  Gregory  the  Great  was 
too  wise  to  write  and  did  not  write — claiming  that, 
as  successor  of  St.  Peter,  he  had  absolute  authority 
and  supremacy  over  all  churches  in  general,  and 
over  the  new  English  Church  in  particular  which 
he  himself  founded  and  nursed.  He  did  write  other 
letters  expressly  repudiating  the  title  of  "Universal 
Bishop"  for  himself  or  any  body  else.  Gregory's 
worst  and  vaguest  letter  to  Augustine,  which  might 
be  interpreted  to  squint  that  way,  was  the  one  in 
which  he  says,  "All  the  bishops  of  the  British  Isles 
we  commit  to  you,  my  brother  .  .  .  that  the  per- 
verse may  be  corrected  by  authority."  Whose  au- 
thority, Gregory's,  or  Augustine's,  or  botht  I  give 
it  up. 

The  old  British  Church  had  refused  to  accept  the 
authority  given  to  Augustine.     Their  kinsmen,  the 

[111] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

heroic  Scotic  missionaries,  who  had  won  the  greater 
part  of  England  for  Christ,  who  had  succeeded  most 
abundantly   where   the   Romans   had   nearly   failed, 
were  not  prepared  to  surrender  the  venerable  cus- 
toms of  their  fathers,  and  of  their  saintly  Founder 
Columba,  much  less  their  ecclesiastical  independence 
which  they  felt  to  be  involved,  without  a  struggle. 
Yet  the  time  had  come  in  the  Providence  of  God 
for  the  making  of  one  national  Church  of  England 
as  the  great  preliminary  to  the  making  of  one  Eng- 
land.   One  of  the  latest  "Manuals  of  English  Church 
History"  in  a  single  volume,  and  the  best  from  an 
Evangelical  standpoint,  is  that  of  the  late  Charles 
Hole,  for  twenty  years  lecturer  in  church  history 
in  King's  College,  London — a  valued  associate   of 
Dean  Wace.    He  says  of  this  crisis,  * '  The  process  of 
conversion  had  resulted  in  the  formation,  not  of  a 
Church   (in  the  strict,  later  sense),  but  of  a  set  of 
distinct  church-missions,  which,  originating  in  vary- 
ing  circumstances,    patronized   by   rival   kings,    and 
addressing  different  races,  might  have  been,  as  to 
doctrine  and  church  constitution,  a  cluster  of  jeal- 
ous and  jarring  communities.    A  nearer  view  reveals 
these  missionary  churches  as  consenting  in  impor 
tant  points,  differing  in  some  minor  ones.     They 
were  in  constitution  Episcopal,  in  faith  Catholic  and 
Orthodox  according  to  the  criteria  of  that  age.  .  .  . 
Two   nations,   the   Franks   first,   the   Anglo-Saxons 
next,  had   the   distinction   of  being   originally   Or- 
thodox and  Catholic  by  conversion,  and  so,  likewise 
had  the  British,  Irish,  and  Scotic  Kelts  of  an  earlier 

[112] 


THE  COMING-TOGETHER 

day.  In  certain  usages,  however,  .  .  .  the  Heptarchal 
churches  differed  among  themselves  according  to 
the  sources  of  their  conversion." 

We  are  now  to  see  the  first  stages  of  that  gradual 
process  by  which  these  separate  churches  of  the 
several  kingdoms  passed  beyond  the  mission-stage, 
and  became  welded  together  into  one  common  and 
compact  organization  known  as  the  English  Church. 
The  two  separate  streams  of  missionary  influence  and 
conversion,  whose  life-giving  and  fertilizing  waters 
had  penetrated  to  almost  every  part  of  the  country, 
were  now  about  to  flow  together  into  one  broad  and 
brimming  river  which  should  make  glad  the  City 
of  God.  The  fusion  of  the  diverse  elements  of 
Roman  and  of  Keltic  Christianity  would  erelong  be 
moulded  into  proper  shape  and  symmetry.  But  the 
two  streams  could  not  meet  and  mingle  into  one 
without  some  turbulence,  without  a  considerable 
** troubling  of  the  waters."  The  "waters '-meet"  of 
the  English  Church  was  at  a  place  long  afterwards 
called  ''Whitby,"  in  the  year  of  Grace  664,  at  the 
Abby  founded  there  seven  years  before  by  the  Lady 
Hilda,  The  spot  is  still  marked  by  the  stately  ruins 
that  stand  on  the  Yorkshire  Cliffs  fronting  the  Ger- 
man ocean — ''one  of  the  most  note-worthy  land 
marks  in  the  history  of  England." 

The  settlement  of  the  differences  between  the  two 
parties  was  brought  about  by  Oswy,  then  the  power- 
ful King  of  Northumbria  and  Over-lord  of  Britain. 
His  own  domestic  felicity,  as  well  as  the  peace  and 
prosperity  of  the  Church  in  his  realm,  were  threat- 

[113] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

ened  by  the  rivalry  of  the  factions,  especially  by  the 
serious  inconvenience  of  his  wife  and  himself  keep- 
ing Easter  at  two  different  times.  The  King  had 
held  fast  to  the  practice  of  his  revered  bishops, 
Aidan,  Finan  and  Colman,  His  Queen  Eanfled  had 
been  taught  in  Kent  to  follow  her  mother  Ethel- 
burga  and  to  observe  Easter  as  appointed  by  the 
Roman  Kalendar.  Thus  it  came  to  pass  on  a  certain 
occasion  that,  while  Oswy  was  rejoicing  in  the  glad 
festivities  of  Easter,  Eanfleld  and  her  children  were 
still  observing  the  penitential  fast  of  Holy  "Week. 
It  was  high  time,  the  King  thought,  to  put  a  stop 
to  such  incongruities  in  his  court,  and  the  two 
classes  of  churchmen  must  settle  their  differences. 
The  King  therefore,  called  them  together  in  a  sort 
of  national  synod,  and  told  them  to  **get  busy.'' 
The  leading  representatives  of  the  Scotic  school 
were  King  Oswy  who  presided,  Bishop  Colman, 
Bishop  Cedd,  and  the  Abbess  Hilda.  On  the  other 
side  were  Queen  Eanfled  and  Prince  Alchfrid,  her 
son,  Agilbert,  bishop  of  the  West  Saxons,  Romanus, 
chaplain  to  the  Queen,  James  the  deacon,  and  last 
but  not  least,  Wilfrid,  of  whom  we  recently  heard 
as  the  first  successful  missionary  to  the  South 
Saxons,  twenty  years  later.  He  plays  so  conspicu- 
ous a  part  at  this  turning-point  of  English  Church 
history  and  later  on,  that  a  brief  sketch  of  his  earlier 
career  will  not  be  out  of  place  here.  Wilfrid  was 
a  native  of  Northumbria,  born  in  634  of  noble  and 
wealthy  parents.  At  the  age  of  thirteen  his  step- 
mother was  quite  willing  to  part  with  the  precocious 

[114] 


THE  COMING-TOGETHER 

youth,  and  sent  him,  nothing  loth  to  leave  her,  to 
the  Northumbrian  court,  where  he  made  his  appear- 
ance richly  attired  and  armed,  well  mounted  and 
attended.  The  handsome  and  graceful  lad,  intelli- 
gent and  courteous,  readily  gained  the  favor  of  the 
Queen.  Discerning  his  inclination  for  the  monastic 
life,  she  opened  the  way  for  him  to  enter  Lindis- 
farne,  where  he  spent  three  years  as  a  novice  under 
the  Scottish  training  and  discipline,  acquiring  a 
reputation  for  rare  scholarship,  and  gaining  the 
affection  of  both  teachers  and  pupils.  He  seems, 
however,  to  have  become  dissatisfied  with  the  nar- 
row range  of  his  Scottish  tutors,  and  to  have  had 
already  a  yearning  for  the  wider  culture  of  Rome. 
Accordingly,  with  the  approval  of  the  authorities, 
the  Queen  sent  him  to  Canterbury,  where  for  a  year 
he  studied  its  church  usages,  and  thence  to  Rome 
itself  in  the  company  of  Benedict  Bishop,  another 
noble  Northumbrian  famous  afterwards  as  a  scholar 
and  traveller,  a  founder  of  monasteries  and  pro- 
moter of  ecclesiastical  art.  Wilfrid  found  at  last 
what  he  had  longed  for  in  the  Eternal  City,  and, 
under  the  Pope's  favor,  had  rare  opportunities  of 
studying  the  Roman  rules  and  ritual  at  the  fountain- 
head.  On  his  way  to  and  from  that  city  he  halted  at 
Lyons,  and  became  a  favorite  with  its  Archbishop 
Annemundus,  who  would  gladly  have  adopted  him 
as  his  son  and  heir.  Here  he  spent  three  more  years 
of  clerical  study  and  received  the  Roman  tonsure. 
Upon  his  return  to  Northumbria  in  658,  Wilfrid  be- 
came the  intimate  friend  of  Prince  Alchfrid,  and 

[116] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

also  his  tutor.  The  prince  was  already  won  over 
to  the  Roman  rather  than  the  Scotic  usages.  This 
young  King  of  Deira  had  recently  established  a 
monastery  at  Ripon,  and  put  it  under  the  charge  of 
Eata  the  Abbot,  and  Cuthbert,  one  of  the  monks  of 
Melrose  Abby.  In  661,  Alchfrid  had  fallen  so  com- 
pletely under  the  spell  of  Wilfrid  and  his  strong 
Roman  proclivities,  that  he  removed  the  Scotic 
monks  from  Ripon  and  made  Wilfrid  abbot,  and 
had  him  ordained  priest  by  Agilbert,  bishop  of 
Wessex  and  a  leader  of  the  Roman  party.  This, 
then,  was  the  gifted  and  accomplished  young  man 
chosen  to  champion  the  cause  of  Rome  against  lona 
at  the  Whitby  Conference,  which  soon  narrowed 
down  to  a  debate  between  Colman  and  Wilfrid. 
Bede  has  given  us  an  account  at  considerable  length 
of  this  contest,  and  another  account  is  found  in  the 
biography  of  Wilfrid  by  Eddi.  We  will  give  a 
sketch  of  the  most  salient  points  of  the  debate,  which 
was  not  very  accurate  or  logical  on  either  side,  but 
in  which  Colman  was  no  match  for  the  brilliant  and 
versatile  Wilfrid. 

King  Oswy,  on  taking  the  chair,  declared  that  ''it 
behooved  those  who  served  one  God  to  observe  the 
same  rule  of  life ;  and,  as  they  all  expected  the  same 
kingdom  in  heaven,  so  they  ought  not  to  differ  in 
the  celebration  of  the  divine  mysteries;  but  rather 
to  inquire  which  was  the  truest  tradition,  that  the 
same  might  be  followed  by  all."  He  then  com- 
manded his  Bishop  Colman  first  to  declare  what  the 
custom  was  which  he  observed,  and  whence  it  de- 

[116] 


THE  COMING-TOGETHER 

rived  its  origin.  Then  Colman  said,  ''The  Easter 
which  I  keep,  I  received  from  my  elders  who  sent 
me  bishop  hither;  all  our  forefathers,  men  beloved 
of  God,  are  known  to  have  kept  it  after  the  same 
manner;  and,  that  the  same  may  not  seem  to  any 
contemptible  or  worthy  to  be  rejected,  it  is  the 
same  which  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  the  disciple 
beloved  of  our  Lord,  with  all  the  churches  over 
which  he  presided,  is  recorded  to  have  observed." 
Bishop  Agilbert  was  then  called  upon  to  ''show 
whence  his  custom  of  keeping  Easter  was  derived." 
Agilbert  asked  that  his  disciple,  the  priest  Wilfrid, 
might  speak  in  his  stead.  Then  Wilfrid,  being  or- 
dered by  the  King  to  speak,  delivered  himself  thus: 
"The  Easter  which  we  observe  we  saw  celebrated 
by  all  at  Rome,  where  the  blessed  Apostles  Peter  and 
Paul  lived,  taught,  suffered,  and  were  buried;  we 
saw  the  same  done  in  Italy  and  in  France,  when  we 
travelled  through  those  countries  for  pilgrimage  and 
prayer.  We  found  this  same  practiced  in  Africa, 
Asia,  Egypt,  Greece,  and  all  the  world — except  only 
these  and  their  accomplices  in  obstinacy  —  I  mean  the 
Picts  and  the  Britons  who  foolishly  in  these  two  remote 
islands  of  the  world,  and  only  in  part  even  of  them, 
oppose  all  the  rest  of  the  universe."  This  was  really 
the  strongest  argument  for  Wilfrid's  party,  and 
against  the  Scottish  use — viz, :  the  Catholicity  of  the 
Roman  Easter  —  though  stated  with  scorn  and  rude- 
ness towards  his  opponents.  To  this  Colman  replied 
with  calm  dignity,  "  It  is  strange  that  you  will  call  our 
labors  foolish,  wherein  we  follow  the  example  of 

[117] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

so  great  an  Apostle  who  was  thought  worthy  to  lay 
his  head  on  our  Lord's  bosom."  Wilfrid  had  no 
difficulty  in  showing  that  the  Keltic  Easter  had  no 
real  warrant  from  St.  John.  "Is  it  to  be  believed/' 
said  Colman,  "that  our  most  reverend  Father  Col- 
umba  and  his  successors,  men  beloved  by  God,  who 
kept  the  Easter  after  the  same  manner,  acted  con- 
trary to  the  Divine  writings?"  To  which  Wilfrid 
answered,  "I  do  not  deny  those  to  have  been  God's 
servants  and  beloved  by  Him,  who,  with  rustic  sim- 
plicity but  pious  intentions,  have  themselves  loved 
Him.  Nor  do  I  think  that  such  keeping  of  Easter 
was  very  prejudicial  to  them,  as  long  as  none  came 
to  show  them  a  more  perfect  rule;  and  yet  I  do 
believe  that  they,  if  any  Catholic  adviser  had  come 
among  them,  would  as  readily  have  followed  his 
admonitions  as  they  are  known  to  have  kept  those 
commandments  of  God  which  they  had  learned  to 
know.  But  as  for  you  and  your  companions,  you 
certainly  sin,  if,  having  heard  the  decrees  of  the 
Apostolic  See  and  of  the  Universal  Church,  and  that 
the  same  is  confirmed  by  Holy  Writ  (for  this  last 
Wilfrid  had  no  warrant)  you  refuse  to  follow  them; 
for,  though  your  fathers  were  holy,  do  you  think 
that  their  small  number  in  a  corner  of  the  remotest 
island  is  to  be  preferred  before  the  Universal  Church 
of  Christ  throughout  the  world  ? ' '  Here  Wilfrid  was 
getting  back  on  solid  ground,  though  not  likely  to 
carry  his  opponents  with  him  by  his  offensive  way 
of  putting  it.  Finally  Wilfrid  carried  his  case  by 
thundering  out  the  favorite  Text  of  all  Romanists, 
[118] 


THE  COMING-TOGETHER 

even  when,  as  here,  it  has  nothing  whatever  to  do 
with  the  subject  in  hand.  "If  that  Columba,'*  he 
cried,  ''of  yours  (and  I  may  say  ours  also,  if  he  was 
Christ's  servant)  was  a  holy  man  and  powerful  in 
miracles,  yet  could  he  be  preferred  before  the  most 
blessed  Prince  of  the  Apostles,  to  whom  our  Lord 
said,  'Thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will 
build  my  Church,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not 
prevail  against  it,  and  to  thee  I  will  give  the  keys 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.'  "  This  clinching  sophis- 
try of  Wilfrid's,  delivered,  doubtless,  in  his  most 
imposing  and  impressive  manner,  carried  conviction 
straightway  to  the  King,  who,  no  doubt,  had  made 
up  his  mind  beforehand,  and  who  had  little  trouble 
in  making  up  the  minds  of  his  people.  "Is  it  true, 
Colman,"  said  the  royal  president  of  the  confer- 
ence, "that  these  words  were  spoken  to  Peter  by 
our  Lord?"  He  answered,  "It  is  true,  0  King." 
Then  said  he,  "Can  you  show  any  such  power  given 
to  your  Columba  ? ' '  Colman  answered, ' '  None. ' '  Then 
added  the  King,  "Do  you  both  agree  that  these 
words  were  principally  directed  to  Peter,  and  that 
the  keys  of  heaven  were  given  him  by  our  Lord?" 
They  both  answered,  "We  do."  Then  Oswy  con- 
cluded— whether  in  jest,  or  in  sober  earnest,  it  is 
hard  to  say — "And  I  also  say  unto  you,  that  he  is 
the  door-keeper  whom  I  will  not  contradict,  but 
will,  as  far  as  I  know  and  am  able,  in  all  things  obey 
his  decrees,  lest  when  I  come  to  the  gates  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  there  should  be  none  to  open 

[119] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

them,  he  being  my  adversary  who  is  proved  to 
have  the  keys.'* 

**The  King  having  said  this,"  is  Bede's  naive  con- 
clusion of  the  matter,  ''all  present,  both  great  and 
small,  gave  their  assent,  and,  renouncing  the  more 
imperfect  institution,  resolved  to  conform  to  that 
which  they  found  better." 

Bede's  statement  that  ''all  present,  both  great  and 
small,  gave  their  assent,"  is  qualified  by  the  title 
of  his  next  chapter — "Colman,  being  worsted,  re- 
turned home."  Poor  Colman,  doubtless,  felt  '^ small'' 
enough  to  fall  under  that  class  of  assenters,  but  he 
did  not,  could  not  conscientiously,  consent  to  a 
decision  which  seemed  to  him  to  repudiate  and  des- 
pise (though  it  did  not)  the  teaching  of  those  saintly 
men  who  had  won  Northumbria  to  Christ.  And 
so  Colman  mournfully  turned  his  back  upon  his  dear 
Lindisfarne  and  the  noble  work  he  had  loved  so 
well,  and  "went  back  into  Scotland  to  consult  with 
his  friends  there  as  to  what  was  to  be  done  in  this 
case."  Nor  did  he  ever  return.  From  lona  he  went 
still  further  to  Ireland,  where  the  old  Keltic  customs 
survived,  and  built  a  monastery  off  the  coast  of 
Mayo,  spending  the  rest  of  his  life  on  the  remote 
Island  Inisboffin,  and  dying  there  about  twelve  years 
later.  Colman  also  "took  with  him  such  as  would 
not  comply  with  the  Catholic  Easter,"  his  Irish 
monks  who  stood  loyally  by  him,  and  thirty  North- 
umbrian monks  who  clung  to  their  master.  As  a 
parting  request,  he  asked  that  the  conforming  monks 
of  Lindisfarne  might  have  for  their  Abbot  in  his 

[120] 


THE  COMING-TOGETHER 

stead  the  gentle  and  congenial  Eata,  an  old  pupil 
of  Aidan's  and  then  Abbot  of  Melrose.  This  gladly 
granted,  Abbot  Colman  and  his  companions  bade 
farewell  to  the  Holy  Isle,  consecrated  by  thirty  years 
under  the  Scottish  saints.  They  took  with  them 
some  of  the  sacred  bones  of  Aidan,  its  first  bishop, 
to  deposit  at  his  old  home  in  lona. 

To  quote  again  from  the  Count  de  Montalembert : 
— ''What  heart  is  so  cold  as  not  to  understand,  to 
sympathize  and  to  journey  with  him  along  the 
Northumbrian  coast  and  over  the  Scottish  moun- 
tains, when,  bearing  homeward  the  bones  of  his 
father  Aidan,  the  proud  but  vanquished  spirit  re- 
turned to  his  northern  mists,  and  buried  in  the 
sacred  Isle  of  lona  his  defeat,  and  his  unconquerable 
fidelity  to  the  traditions  of  his  race."  There  is 
nothing  more  pathetic  in  Bede's  book  than  his 
* 'Farewell  to  that  old  Scotic  Church  of  Northum- 
bria,**  of  which,  Canon  Bright  says,  "It  could  not 
but  pass  away,  for  it  could  not  provide  what  North- 
umbria  then  needed;  it  had  but  a  temporary  mis- 
sion, but  that  mission  it  fulfilled  with  a  rare  sim- 
plicity of  purpose.  It  brought  religion  straight 
home  to  men's  hearts  by  sheer  power  of  love  and 
self-sacrifice."  Here  is  the  substance  of  Bede's  Tri- 
bute to  the  Scottish  Saints  of  Northumbria : — ' '  '  The 
place  which  Colman  governed  shows  how  frugal 
he  and  his  predecessors  were,  for  there  were  very 
few  houses  except  the  Church  found  at  their  depar- 
ture ;  indeed  no  more  than  were  barely  sufficient  for 
their  daily  residence;  they  had  also  no  money,  but 

[121] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

cattle;  for  if  they  received  any  money  from  rich 
persons,  they  immediately  gave  it  to  the  poor.  .  .  . 
The  King  himself,  v^hen  opportunity  offered,  came 
only  with  five  or  six  servants,  and,  having  performed 
his  devotions  in  the  Church,  departed.  But,  if  they 
happened  to  take  a  repast  there,  they  were  satis- 
fied with  only  the  plain  and  daily  food  of  the  breth- 
ren, and  required  no  more:  for  the  whole  care  of 
these  teachers  was  to  serve  God,  not  the  world,  to 
feed  the  soul  and  not  the  belly.  For  this  reason 
the  religious  habit  was  at  that  time  in  great  venera- 
tion; so  that  wheresoever  any  clergyman  or  monk 
happened  to  come,  he  was  joyfully  received  by  all 
persons  as  God's  servant;  and,  if  they  chanced  to 
meet  him  upon  the  way,  they  ran  to  him,  and  bow- 
ing, were  glad  to  be  signed  with  his  hand  or  blessed 
with  his  mouth.  Great  attention  was  also  paid  to 
their  exhortations;  and  on  Sundays  they  flocked 
eagerly  to  the  Church,  or  the  monasteries,  not  to 
feed  their  bodies,  but  to  hear  the  word  of  God ;  and, 
if  any  priest  happened  to  come  into  a  village,  the 
inhabitants  flocked  together  to  hear  from  him  the 
word  of  life ;  for  the  priests  and  clergymen  went  into 
the  village  on  no  other  account  than  to  preach,  bap- 
tize, visit  the  sick,  and  in  few  words,  to  take  care 
of  souls ;  and  they  were  so  free  from  worldly  avarice 
that  none  of  them  received  lands  and  possessions  for 
building  monasteries,  unless  they  were  compelled 
to  do  so  by  the  temporal  authorities;  which  custom 
was  for  some  time  after  observed  in  all  the  churches 
of  the  Northumbrians.     But  enough  has  been  said 

[122] 


THE  COMING-TOGETHER 

on  this  subject.'  " — Enough,  surely,  to  make  it  very 
plain  that,  whatever  gain  came  to  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Church  by  the  decision  at  Whitby  (and  the  gain 
was  very  great)  there  was  also  very  serious  loss 
in  the  departure  of  Colman  and  his  companions. 
The  Church  can  ill-afford  to  lose  at  any  time  men  of 
the  spirit  of  the  Keltic  missionaries,  who  were  full 
of  the  spirit  of  God.  The  humility,  the  childlike  sim- 
plicity, unworldliness,  and  generosity,  the  un- 
bounded love  and  self-devotion  to  Christ  and  His 
Gospel,  the  deep  and  pure  personal  religion,  the 
inflexible  missionary  zeal,  the  striking  individuality 
and  independence,  the  love  of  liberty — which  char- 
acterized the  Keltic  saints,  and  set  their  stamp  in- 
delibly upon  English  religion, — if  the  Church  had 
had  lost  this  by  the  decision  at  Whitby,  no  other 
gains  could  have  compensated  for  such  a  loss.  But, 
in  losing  Colman  and  his  non-conforming  monks, 
it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  Church  of  England 
lost  the  whole  Keltic  stock  of  clergy  and  laity,  much 
less  the  large  number  of  their  disciples  and  followers 
who  continued  to  feel  their  influence  and  example. 
Even  the  ardent  Romanist  Wilfrid  himself  could  not 
forget  or  forsake  the  evangelizing  and  missionary 
impulse  which  he  had  received  at  Lindisfarne,  and 
which  made  him  an  Evangelist  of  the  benighted 
Frisians  and  the  backward  South  Saxons.  Among 
those  of  the  Scotic  party  who  accepted  the  Roman 
customs  because  they  were  more  Catholic,  were 
Bishop  Cedd,  who  had  acted  as  interpreter,  Tuda, 
who  succeeded  Colman  in  the  Northumberland  epis- 

[123] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

copate,  Chadd,  brother  of  Cedd,  wlio  later  filled 
the  same  see,  Eata,  the  new  Abbot  of  Lindisfarne, 
the  hermit-saint  Cuthbert,  and  erelong  the  English 
disciples  of  the  Scots  generally.  It  would  be  the 
greatest  blunder,  however,  to  suppose  that  these 
became  Romanists  in  the  later  and  modern  sense, 
that  they  surrendered  the  best  characteristics  of 
Keltic  Christianity,  or  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church 
surrendered  at  once  its  independence,  and  became 
thereby  subject  to  the  Roman  See.  Nothing  of  the 
sort  was  asked,  or  granted  at  Whitby.  The  Roman 
Church  of  that  day  was  very  different  from  later 
mediaeval  and  modern  Romanism.  Papal  pretensions 
and  aggressions,  and  English  submission  thereto 
were  to  come  later,  but  not  for  a  long  time  yet.  And 
it  was  the  Keltic  love  of  ecclesiastical  liberty  that 
helped  to  make  the  English  Church  so  stubborn  in 
its  resistance  to  papal  aggression  for  centuries  to 
come.  As  Bishop  Lightfoot  says,  "Through  the  long 
ages  of  Roman  domination  the  English  Church  was 
the  least  enslaved  of  all  the  churches.  Her  statute- 
book  is  a  continued  protest  against  this  foreign  ag- 
gression. Her  ablest  kings  were  the  resolute  oppo- 
nents of  Roman  usurpation.  When  the  yoke  was 
finally  thrown  off,  though  the  strong  will  of  the 
reigning  sovereign  was  the  active  agent,  yet  it  was 
the  independent  spirit  of  the  clergy  and  people 
which  rendered  the  change  possible.  Hence  there 
was  no  break  in  the  continuity  of  the  English 
Church.     Of  this  independent  spirit  which  culmin- 

[124] 


THE  COMING-TOGETHER 

ated    in    the    Reformation,    Aidan,    our    spiritual 
father,  was  the  earliest  embodiment.'* 

No,  the  English  Church  has  never  altogether  lost 
the  spiritual  impulse  of  the  Keltic  Christianity  in 
its  golden  days.  But  its  best  days  were  over  now  in 
England,  and  its  continued  isolation  from  the  rest 
of  western  Christendom  in  Scotland  and  Ireland 
would  prove  disastrous  there  erelong.  The  reviv- 
ing stream  of  Scotic  influence  which  had  come  down 
like  a  mountain  torrent  from  lona  to  Lindisfarne, 
and  had  flowed  out  thence  through  the  greater  part 
of  the  Heptarchy,  did  not  by  any  means  run  dry  at 
Whitby.  It  only  mingled  its  waters  with  that  other 
stream  from  Rome  to  make  one  mightier  river  of 
God  for  all  England.  The  two  together  would  prove 
more  effective  than  the  two  separated.  The  gains 
were  far  greater  than  the  loss  to  England  and  to 
Christendom,  when  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church  en- 
tered into  free  and  full  fellowship  with  Latin  Chris- 
tianity— then  the  greatest  power  for  good  in  the 
world.  In  his  "History  of  the  English  people," 
Mr.  Green  gives  a  vivid  picture  of  the  missionary 
power  of  the  Irish  Church  in  Great  Britain  and  on 
the  continent  of  Europe.  '*For  a  time,"  he  says,  it 
seemed  as  if  the  course  of  the  world's  history  was 
to  be  changed,  as  if  the  older  Keltic  race  that  Roman 
and  German  had  swept  before  them  had  turned  to 
the  moral  conquest  of  their  conquerors, — as  if  Keltic 
and  not  Latin  Christianity  was  to  mold  the  des- 
tinies of  the  churches  of  the  West."  But  he  pre- 
sents another  picture  when  he  comes  to  a  later  time 

[125] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

and  to  the  wholesome  effects  of  the  conclusion  at 
Whitby.  ** Trivial  in  fact,"  he  declares,  '*as  were 
the  actual  points  of  difference  which  severed  the 
Roman  Church  from  the  Irish,  the  question  to  which 
communion  Northumbria  should  belong  was  of  im- 
mense moment  to  the  after-fortunes  of  England. 
Had  the  Church  of  Aidan  finally  won,  the  later 
ecclesiastical  history  would  probably  have  resem- 
bled that  of  Ireland.  Devoid  of  that  power  of  or- 
ganization which  was  the  strength  of  the  Roman 
Church,  the  Keltic  Church  in  its  own  Irish  home 
took  the  Clan  system  of  the  country  as  the  basis  of 
church  government.  .  .  j.  Hundreds  of  wandering 
bishops,  a  vast  religious  authority  wielded  by  hered- 
itary chieftains,  the  dissociation  of  piety  from  mor- 
ality, the  absence  of  those  larger  and  more  human- 
izing influences  which  contact  with  a  wider  world 
alone  can  give,  this  is  the  picture  which  the  Irish 
Church,  of  later  times  presents  to  us.  It  was  from 
such  a  chaos  as  this  that  England  was  saved  by  the 
victory  of  Rome  in  the  Synod  of  Whitby. '  ^ 

Yes,  it  was  high  time  for  the  Church  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  peoples  to  emerge  from  its  purely  mission 
stage,  to  advance  beyond  the  stage  of  isolated,  scat- 
tered settlements  here  and  there,  grouped  loosely 
around  some  monastic  or  episcopal  seat,  with  neither 
parochial  nor  diocesan  organization;  time  for  it  to 
become  one  united  and  compact  organism.  It 
Qceded  an  efficient  and  settled  government  of  its 
own,  with  an  uniform  system  of  regular  institutions 
and  definite  laws,  which  should  bind  all  its  members 

[126] 


THE  COMING-TOGETHER 

together  into  one  common  body,  and  bring  it  into 
closer  relations  with  the  larger  and  richer  life  and 
civilization  and  learning  of  the  Catholic  Church  in 
the  rest  of  Europe.  Clearly,  this  was  a  stage  of 
advancement  to  which  the  Scotch-Irish  Church  was 
not  equal.  It  was  something  which  Rome  alone 
could  then  supply,  with  its  genius  for  organization, 
and  law  and  order.  In  Mr.  Wakeman's  brilliant 
book,  **An  Introduction  to  the  History  of  the 
Church  of  England, ' '  he  says  of  the  Keltic  Church, — 
"It  could  arouse,  but  it  could  not  maintain;  it  could 
win,  but  it  could  not  govern.  The  combination  of 
Keltic  self-sacrifice  and  zeal  with  the  discipline  and 
the  culture  of  Rome  was  needed  before  the  English 
Church  could  fully  awake  to  the  responsibilities  of 
her  high-position.  .  .  .  The  Keltic  Church  found 
its  best  method  of  work  in  the  personal  contact  of 
soul  with  soul,  its  truest  source  of  influence  in  the 
example  of  the  Christ-like  life  lived  once  more 
among  men.  Without  the  assistance  of  Rome  there 
could  never  have  been  built  up  in  England  a  great 
organized  and  cultured  church,  able  to  hold  its  own 
among  the  storms  of  Christendom.  Without  the 
help  of  the  Saints  of  lona,  that  Church  would  have 
been  but  a  mechanism  of  bones  and  flesh  wanting 
the  life-giving  soul.  .  .  .  Both  the  arguments  (of 
Colman  and  Wilfrid  at  the  Whitby  Conference) 
were  unhistorical,  but  behind  the  arguments  used 
lay  the  real  questions  which  were  involved — isola- 
tion or  unity,  law  or  chaos,  culture  or  ignorance, 
progress    or    backwardness.  .  .  .  Roman    tradition 

[127] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

and  papal  authority  were  the  forces  which  in  the 
coming  ages  were  to  conquer  the  barbarian  world, 
and  consecrate  it  to  the  service  of  Christ.  The  de- 
cision at  Whitby  meant  that  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land had  determined  to  take  her  part  in  that  noble 
work. ' ' 

Before  taking  up  the  epoch-making  career  of 
Theodore,  the  first  great  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
let  us  glance  briefly  at  some  of  the  events  which 
followed  the  Whitby  Conference,  and  some  of  the 
principal  personages  concerned.  Tuda,  who  suc- 
ceeded Colman  as  Northumbrian  bishop,  was  car- 
ried off  by  a  terrible  plague  that  visited  England. 
Then  came  Wilfrid's  great  opportunity,  of  which  he 
did  not  avail  himself  very  worthily.  Being  ap- 
pointed to  succeed  Tuda,  he  wanted  things  done  in 
the  best  Roman  style.  He  resolved,  therefore,  to 
transfer  the  Northumbrian  See  from  humble  Lin- 
disfarne  to  York,  where  Gregory  had  fixed  the  sec- 
ond Archbishopric  of  England,  and  where  Bishop 
Paulinus  had  fixed  his  See.  Wilfrid  resolved,  also, 
to  be  consecrated  by  bishops  of  whose  Roman  reg- 
ularity and  Orthodoxy  there  could  be  no  question. 
So  King  Oswy  sent  him  to  the  King  of  the  Gauls, 
and  the  famous  champion  of  Rome  was  received  with 
great  honor  at  Court.  He  was  consecrated  Bishop 
at  Compiegne  by  twelve  bishops,  of  whom  his  old 
friend  Agilbert,  formerly  Bishop  of  Wessex  now 
of  Paris,  was  one.  These  prelates  carried  him  into 
the  church  in  a  golden  chair,  and  everything  was 
done  with  Parisian  pomp   and  ceremony.     Wilfrid 

[128] 


THE  COMING-TOGETHER 

was  so  enamored  of  his  prelatical  honors  abroad 
that  he  remained  away  from  his  see  for  about  a 
year.  Meanwhile  there  was  trouble  at  home,  and  his 
diocese  became  weary  of  waiting  for  the  wilful 
Wilfrid.  Accordingly  the  King  appointed  Chad  in 
his  place.  Chad  went  to  countrj^fied  Kent  to  be  con- 
secrated without  any  city  style.  But  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  Deusdedit  had  also  been  carried  off 
by  the  plague,  and  the  See  was  vacant.  The  only 
bishop  accessible  was  Wini  the  West  Saxon  Bishop 
at  Winchester.  Here  then  Chad  was  consecrated 
by  Wini  and  two  British  bishops  secured  to  make 
the  canonical  number  of  three.  I  wonder  what 
Wilfrid  and  the  other  high-churchman  thought  of 
these  two.  This  is  the  only  instance  in  which  the  old 
British  bishops  had  as  yet  cooperated  in  any  way 
with  the  Church  of  the  English.  It  looked  as  if 
the  British  in  Cornwall  and  Wales  were  relenting 
and  becoming  reconciled  to  their  Saxon  neighbors. 
Chad,  whom  Bede  describes  as  ''a  holy  man  of  mod- 
est behavior,  well  read  in  the  Scriptures  and  dili- 
gently practicing  those  things  which  he  had  learned 
therein,  being  thus  consecrated  bishop,  began  im- 
mediately to  devote  himself  to  ecclesiastical  truth 
and  to  chastity;  to  apply  himself  to  humility,  con- 
tinence and  study ;  to  travel  about,  not  on  horseback, 
but  after  the  manner  of  the  Apostles  on  foot,  to 
spread  the  Gospel  in  towns,  the  open  country,  cot- 
tages, villages  and  castles;  for  he  was  one  of  the 
disciples  of  Aidan,  and  endeavored  to  instruct  his 
people   by  the   same   actions   and   behavior,   accord- 

[129] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

ing  to  his  and  his  brother  Cedd's  example."  There 
was  evidently  no  immediate  danger  of  Keltic  sim- 
plicity and  devotion  dying  out  under  brother  Chad's 
episcopate.  The  contrast  to  Wilfrid's  ''golden 
chair"  and  magnificence  is  rather  striking. 

Shortly  after  Chad  had  entered  upon  his  reluc- 
tant episcopate,  ''clothed  with  humility,"  which 
fitted  him  better  than  cope  and  mitre,  "Wilfrid  at 
last  made  a  modest  start  homeward  from  giddy  Gaul 
in  princely  prelatical  style  with  only  one  hundred 
and  twenty  attendants.  As  he  was  crossing  the 
channel,  a  sudden  storm  of  the  usual  sort  drove  his 
ship  ashore  on  the  South  Saxon  coast,  from  which 
he  barely  escaped  with  his  life,  and  to  which  at  a 
later  time  he  returned  to  do  a  noble  evangelizing 
work,  which  more  than  compensated  for  his  follies. 
Upon  his  arrival  in  Northumbria,  finding  himself 
supplanted  in  his  See,  he  submitted  with  a  good 
grace,  and  went  quietly  to  work  in  his  monastery  at 
Ripon,  for  Wilfrid  was  never  an  idler.  He  was 
always  a  busy  body,  whether  in  his  own  affairs  or  in 
others.  This,  however,  did  not  satisfy  his  restless 
energies;  for — during  a  vacancy  in  the  episcopate  of 
Mercia  —  he  performed  such  successful  episcopal 
functions  there  that  the  King  would  gladly  have 
given  him  that  See.  Here  also  he  founded  new  mon- 
asteries, and  among  them  Lichfield.  His  energies 
also  extended  into  Kent,  where  at  the  King's 
request,  he  supplied  for  a  time  the  vacant  See  of 
Rochester.  At  Canterbury,  too,  we  find  his  brilliant 
personality  and  versatile  genius  attracting  to  him- 

[130] 


THE  COMING-TOGETHER 

self  a  band  of  talented  young  men,  especially  those 
skilled  in  music,  architecture  and  other  ecclesias- 
tical arts.  One  of  them  was  Eddius  Stephanus  or 
Eddi,  his  future  biographer.  Some  of  these  followed 
him  back  to  Northumbria,  and  enabled  him  to  do 
great  things  there  for  the  restoration  and  adornment 
of  its  churches.  Not  long  after,  a  question  was 
raised  as  to  the  regularity  of  Chad's  appointment 
to  York,  and  that  modest  gentleman  meekly  re- 
signed the  See,  and  Wilfrid  was  promptly  and  prop- 
erly put  in  his  place,  —  Chad  retiring  to  the  quiet 
and  congenial  episcopate  of  Lichfield. 

I  cannot  conclude  this  lecture  better  than  by  pre- 
senting to  you  two  strongly  contrasted  pictures  of  the 
two  types  of  Churchmen,  the  Keltic  and  the  Roman, 
now  comprehended  in  the  United  Church  of  Northum- 
bria, soon  to  be  the  one  Church  of  the  English  race. 
I  will  give  you  the  beginning  of  Wilfrid's  glorious 
Episcopate  at  York, — as  condensed  by  Bright  from 
Eddi;  and  the  close  of  Chad's  humble  but  glorious 
also,  Episcopate  at  Lichfield, — as  condensed  by 
William  Hunt  from  the  venerable  Bede: 

'*  Wilfrid  was  then  at  the  height  of  his  prosperity 
and  popularity.  We  seem  to  see  him  going  about 
his  diocese  with  the  energy  of  one  born  to  'repair 
the  breaches'  and  'build  the  old  waste  places:'  at 
York  he  'shuddered'  to  see  his  cathedral  fallen  into 
a  miserable  dilapidation — the  roofs  decaying,  the 
windows  devoid  of  glass,  and  the  inner  walls 
blotched  with  rain  and  haunted  by  birds.  He  re- 
paired the  roofs,  covered  them  with  lead,  glazed  the 
[131] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND 

windows,  cleaned  the  walls  with  lime,  decked  the 
altar  with  new  furniture,  and  obtained  new  property 
for  the  Church.  At  his  beloved  Ripon  he  reared  'a 
basilica  of  polished  stone,  towering  to  a  great  height, 
with  pillars  of  varied  form,  and  arched  vaults,  and 
winding  cloisters ; '  and  invited  the  King,  his  brother 
Alfwin  and  a  number  of  sub-kings,  reeves  and  ab- 
bots to  attend  the  dedication  'in  honor  of  the  Prince 
of  the  Apostles.'  On  such  a  day  he  was  truly  in 
tis  element;  and  we  may  imagine  the  interest  with 
which  the  function  would  be  watched  by  a  little 
boy  then  being  trained  up  in  the  monastery,  after- 
wards the  great  missionary,  Archbishop  Willibrord. 
The  altar,  vested  in  purple  and  cloth  of  gold,  was 
elaborately  blessed,  the  paten  and  chalice  hallowed, 
the  Eucharist  celebrated.  Then  Wilfrid  in  front  of 
the  altar,  with  his  face  towards  the  people,  recited 
a  list  of  the  lands  recently  or  previously  bestowed 
upon  him,  and  also  the  sanctuaries  once  held  by  the 
British  Church.  .  .  .  Wilfrid  added  to  his  other 
gifts  adornments  for  God's  House,  a  large  golden 
cross,  and  a  canopy  of  the  Gospels  in  four  volumes, 
written  in  letters  of  gold  on  richly  colored  parch- 
ment, all  contained  in  a  case  wrought  with  gold  and 
jewels — a  treasure  long  preserved  in  Ripon  Minster. 
A.t  Hexam,  also,  on  land  given  by  the  pious  queen 
Ethelred,  he  built  in  honor  of  St.  Andrew  a  church 
of  great  length  and  height,  with  *  manifold  columns 
and  porches,  a  complication  of  ascending  and 
descending  passages'.  .  .  which  Eddi  describes  as 
'a  structure  that,  as  far  as  he  knew,  had  no  equal 

[132] 


THE  COMING-TOGETHER 

on  this  side  of  the  Alps.*  The  crypt  of  this  church 
still  remains  as  a  monument  of  that  time." 

This  great  churchman,  evidently,  believed,  with 
David,  that,  (* 'where  it  can  be  had")  **the  House 
to  be  builded  for  the  Lord  God  must  be  exceeding 
magnifical." 

''The  bishop,"  we  are  further  told,  **also  exerted 
himself  for  the  improvement  of  Divine  Service :  he 
set  Eddi  and  Aeona  to  carry  on  the  special  work  of 
Church-Song."  But,  if  Wilfrid  was  magnificent  as  a 
church-builder,  and  active  as  a  promoter  of  choral 
worship,  he  was  also  indefatigable  as  a  Chief  Pastor. 
"He  is  depicted  as  riding  about  incessantly  to  baptize 
and  confirm,  holding  ordinations  forming  new 
church  settlements,  and,  amid  all  this  whirl  of  activ- 
ities, retaining  his  habits  of  ascetic  devotion.  .  .  . 
At  the  same  time,  no  austerity  of  manner  was  dis- 
cernible in  him  ;  he  made  himself  'dear  and  loveable* 
to  people  of  all  races,  and  his  gracious  geniality,  the 
outcome  of  a  genuinely  kind  heart,  was  like  sun- 
shine to  all  who  felt  its  presence.  He  was  the  typ- 
ical man  of  Church  and  Nation. 

"This  is  the  picture  of  Wilfrid  in  the  splendors 
of  a  well-deserved  ascendency.  We  shall  see  ere- 
long how  the  unique  brilliancy  of  his  position  con- 
tributed to  provoke  a  great  vicissitude,  which  did 
but  bring  into  fuller  light  the  real  nobleness  of  a 
princely  and  a  Christian  soul." 

Now  look  on  the  other  picture  of  the  saintly 
Chad's  Last  Days.  "Chad  fixed  his  See  at  Lichfield, 
and  lived  there  for  two  years  and  a  half.  ...  He 
[133] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND 

spent  his  time  for  the  most  part  in  travelling  about 
preaching  the  Gospel,  as  he  had  done  in  Northum- 
bria.  Yet  he  had,  of  course,  some  seasons  of  rest. 
Near  his  Church  at  Lichfield,  which  was  dedicated 
to  St.  Mary  and  stood  to  the  East  of  the  present  Cathe- 
dral, he  built  himself  a  hut,  and  there  he  dwelt  when 
he  was  not  engaged  in  preaching  in  other  parts, 
and  passed  his  days  in  reading  and  prayer  with 
some  seven  or  eight  of  his  monks.  Ever  recognizing 
the  presence  of  God  and  mindful  of  the  uncertainty 
of  life,  he  was  full  of  godly  awe,  which  was  appar- 
ent in  all  his  words  and  actions.  .  .  .  This  conscious- 
Qess  of  standing  always  in  the  awful  presence  of 
God  was  the  secret  of  his  deep  humility.  Early  in 
the  year  672,  the  plague  carried  off  a  large  number 
of  his  monks,  and  so  it  happened  on  a  time  that  he 
was  staying  in  his  house  with  only  one  monk  named 
Owine.  This  Owine  had  left  all  that  he  had  and 
appeared  at  Chad 's  monastery  at  Lastingham  carry- 
ing an  axe  and  a  hatchet ;  for,  as  he  had  not  enough 
learning  to  study  the  Scriptures,  he  determined  to 
serve  God  by  working  with  his  hands.  He  had  fol- 
lowed Chad  to  Lichfield,  and  was  with  him  when  the 
call  came  to  the  bishop  which  had  come  to  so  many 
of  his  monks.  One  day  when  he  was  working  in  the 
fields  near  the  bishop 's  dwelling,  Owine  deemed  that 
he  heard  sweet  voices  singing,  and  the  sound  was  as 
though  it  was  coming  down  from  heaven  to  earth, 
and  at  last  it  filled  the  oratory  where  he  knew  that 
Chad  was.  As  he  looked  towards  the  building,  Chad 
opened  the  window  and  clapped  his  hands,  as  he 

[134] 


THE  COMING-TOGETHER 

was  wont  to  do  when  he  would  call  some  one  to  him. 
Owine  obeyed  the  call,  and  Chad  bade  him  go  to 
to  the  Church  and  fetch  ''the  seven  brethren,"  evi- 
dently the  elders  of  the  monastery,  and  come  back 
with  them.  When  they  had  come,  he  exhorted  them 
to  live  in  love  and  peace  together,  and  diligently  to 
observe  the  monastic  rale  and  all  that  they  had 
learned  from  him,  'For,^  said  he  (of  his  approach- 
ing death),  'the  gentle  guest  who  has  of  late  visited 
our  brethren,  has  deigned  to  come  to  me  today  and 
call  me  from  this  world,'  and  he  bade  them  tell  the 
brethren  to  pray  for  him  and  to  watch  with  prayer 
and  good  works  for  the  day  of  their  own  departure. 
Seven  days  later,  he  died,  after  having  received  the 
Holy  Eucharist.  While  other  fathers  of  the  English 
Church  equalled  St.  Chad  in  diligence  and  devotion, 
his  place  is  high  among  those  'holy  and  humble 
men  of  heart,'  who,  having  lived  as  in  the  constant 
presence  of  God,  stand  before  their  Lord's  face, 
and  praise  Him  and  magnify  Him  forever." 

The  comprehensiveness  of  the  Anglican  Com- 
munion has  not  yet  failed  to  include  such  different 
types  of  Churchmen  as  Wilfrid  and  Chad. 


[135] 


The  Coming  of  Theodore,  and  the  Organization  op 
THE  Early  English  Church 

There  are  always  these  two  principal  constituents 
of  a  real  Church : — Life  and  Organization.  But  these 
twain  must  become  one, — they  must  be  married  to 
one  another.  Without  the  regenerate  life  of  men, 
which  comes  from  the  presence  and  power  of  a  living 
and  life-giving  Christ  within  individual  souls,  there 
can  be  only  the  semblance  of  a  Church,  only  its  empty 
shell.  And,  without  an  organism  of  its  own,  even 
the  most  Christian  life  will  lack  the  necessary  instru- 
ment for  its  conservation  and  propagation  among 
men.  The  Apostolic  figure  of  the  Church  is  not  that 
of  *' stones,"  however  beautiful  and  polished,  lying 
scattered  and  separate ;  but  of  a  **  building  fitly  framed 
together," — or,  better  still,  of  a  ''living  body,"  with 
its  intimate  and  sympathetic  connection  of  all  the 
members. 

Now  the  Evangelization  of  the  English,  probably 
of  a  larger  part  of  them, — their  conversion  to  Christ 
and  their  real  Christian  life,  was  largely  due  to  the 
Scotch-Irish  missionaries  from  lona,  the  livest  and 
most  successful  missionary  force  then  in  Western 
Europe.  But  the  ultimate  Organization  of  English 
Christianity,  starting  from  different  sources  and 
representing  different  types,  —  its  Consolidation  into 

[136] 


THE  COMING  OF  THEODORE 

one  English  Church,  was  mainly  the  work  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  then  the  most  unifying  and  effective 
organization  in  Christendom. 

The  Foundation  of  the  English  Church  was  laid 
securely  by  Augustine,  the  Pioneer,  sent  from  Rome 
for  that  purpose.  But  the  Building  erected  thereon 
was  begun  by  a  far  greater  man  than  he,  by  the  first 
great  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  was  a  Greek 
monk  sent  from  Rome.  This  man  was  Theodore  of 
Tarsus,  a  native  of  St.  Paul's  birthplace.  *' Tarsus,'* 
it  has  been  well  said,  **had  produced  a  St.  Paul  to 
found  churches  at  the  extreme  east  of  Europe;  and 
it  produced  a  Theodore  to  consolidate  newly  founded 
churches  at  the  extreme  west.  The  apostle  and  this 
organizer  were  very  unlike  one  another  in  many 
things ;  but  both  of  them  had  great  gifts  for  the  work 
which  God  required  them  to  do."    (Alfred  Plummer.) 

Bede  says  of  Theodore,  **He  was  the  first  of  the 
archbishops  whom  the  whole  English  Church  con- 
sented to  obey."  The  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  says, 
"Before  Theodore  the  archbishops  were  Roman,  after 
him  they  were  all  English,"  and  English  they  con- 
tinued to  be  for  three  hundred  and  fifty  years.  "This 
marks  him,"  says  Professor  Montagu  Burrows  in  his 
"Commentaries  on  the  History  of  England,"  "even 
more  than  Augustine,  as  a  central  figure  for  all  time 
in  English  history.  The  English  Church  under  him 
ceased  to  be  a  mission  church,  and  became  national. 
.  .  .  The  Keltic  Church  w£is  blended  with  the  Roman, 
but  the  composite  Church,  though  Romanized,  was 
still  opposed  to  what  was  afterwards  called  ultra- 

[137] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

montanism.  ...  It  was  indeed  a  Roman  organiza- 
tion, and  yet  in  a  sense  it  was  non-Roman  and  Na- 
tional. Like  Columba,  Augustine  and  Aidan,  Theo- 
dore is  the  typical  man  of  his  own  times. ' ' 

Yes,  the  Keltic  spirit  and  life,  breathed  into  the 
Roman  order  and  organization,  were  the  chief  con- 
stituents that  created  the  English  Church  into  a  living 
organism,  akin  to  both  its  predecessors,  but  different 
from  both  —  sui  generis.  And  the  master  mind,  the 
resolute  will,  and  the  strong  hand  that  brought  this 
about  were  those  of  Theodore.  The  Conference  at 
Whitby  brought,  rather  slowly,  uniformity  of  ob- 
servance, but  the  new  kind  of  Archbishop  brought 
unity  of  organization  and  administration.  He  made 
the  two  parties  not  only  act  alike,  but  act  together 
as  one  body.  Let  us  see  how  Theodore  came  upon 
the  scene,  and  the  part  he  played  when  he  got  there. 
It  is  a  curious  story.  The  last  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury and  the  first  English-bom  archbishop,  called 
Deusdedit,  had  been  carried  off  by  the  plague,  some 
years  before,  and  the  vacancy  had  not  yet  been  filled. 
None  of  the  recent  incumbents  had  gone  outside  of 
Kent,  nor  amounted  to  very  much  there.  It  was  high 
time  for  a  new  type.  It  was  rather  indicative  of  a 
new  order  of  things  that  the  two  principal  Kings, 
Oswy  of  Northumbria  and  Egbert  of  Kent,  agreed 
together  to  fill  the  vacancy  at  Canterbury  by  uniting 
in  the  choice  of  a  monk  there  named  Wighard,  who 
was  also  acceptable  to  the  whole  Church.  In  order 
that  Wighard  might  have  the  benefit  of  wider  observa- 
tion  and   experience   at  Rome,   now  the   recognized 

[138] 


THE  COMING  OF  THEODORE 

model  of  the  English  Church,  and  the  prestige  of 
consecration  by  the  bishop  of  the  Apostolic  See,  he 
was  sent  thither,  but  died  before  he  could  be  con- 
secrated. Although  the  two  kings  do  not  seem  to 
have  asked  the  Pope,  Vitalian,  to  select  another  man 
for  them  in  the  place  of  Wighard,  he  found  it  con- 
venient to  take  this  for  granted,  and  no  objection 
was  made.  The  Pope's  first  choice  was  an  accom- 
plished abbot  of  a  monastery  near  Naples,  named 
Hadrian,  of  African  race  (not  a  negro,  however). 
Hadrian  modestly  declined  the  honor,  but  recom- 
mended a  friend,  whom  he  thought  more  competent. 
This  was  a  Greek  monk  not  yet  in  orders,  although  he 
was  sixty-six  years  of  age,  who  had  but  recently  come 
to  Rome.  He  had  studied  at  Athens,  was  a  scholar  in 
Greek  and  Latin,  in  sacred  and  secular  learning,  and 
eminent  in  philosophy,  so  that  he  was  called  **the 
Philosopher."  This  man  was  Theodore  of  Tarsus. 
The  Pope  accepted  him  on  condition  that  Hadrian, 
who  stood  sponsor  for  him,  should  accompany  him 
to  England  and  help  him  in  the  difficult  work  ahead. 
The  Monothelite  heresy  was  very  prevalent  among  the 
Greeks  then,  and  was  regarded  as  worse  than  the 
plague.  The  Pope  probably  feared  that  this  Greek 
might  be  infected,  and  intended  that  Hadrian  should 
stand  guard  over  his  orthodoxy. 

At  any  rate  Hadrian,  who  had  spent  much  time  in 
Gaul,  would  certainly  be  a  valuable  ally  and  adviser 
to  his  friend.  So  the  lay-monk  was  hurried  through 
the  minor  orders,  and  out  of  his  Greek  tonsure  into 
the  Latin ;  and,  then,  on  March  26th,  in  the  year  668, 

[139] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

he  was  consecrated  by  the  Pope  as  **  Archbishop  of 
the  Church  of  the  English/'  Besides  Hadrian,  the 
noted  English  scholar  and  traveler,  Benedict  Biscop, 
also  accompanied  the  new  prelate  as  teacher  and  inter- 
preter in  the  English  language.  After  a  considerable 
stay  in  Gaul,  at  Aries  and  Paris,  where  he  was  the 
guest  of  Bishop  Agilbert — who  could  give  him  much 
information  about  the  English  Church — the  Arch- 
bishop and  Biscop  arrived  at  Canterbury,  where  Had- 
rian soon  joined  them.  The  Metropolitan  See  had 
now  been  vacant  for  five  years.  The  outlook  was  far 
from  encouraging.  The  contentions  between  the  two 
factions,  although  nominally  healed  at  Whitby,  had 
brought  about  a  chaotic  condition.  There  were  no 
regular  parishes  yet  nor  settled  pastors — no  Diocesan 
system  in  the  strict  sense.  The  so-called  Dioceses 
were  the  kingdoms  of  the  Heptarchy,  generally  very 
large,  with  but  one  bishop  for  each,  and  he  not  tied 
to  his  see. 

These  bishoprics,  too,  were  now  mostly  vacant.  The 
only  bishops  left  at  Theodore's  arrival  were  Wilfrid 
and  Chad  and  Wini.  Wilfrid  and  Chad  were  claim- 
ants to  the  same  See,  and  Wini  was  a  doubtful  charac- 
ter with  a  very  shady  episcopate.  A  wise,  resolute  and 
energetic  man  was  required  to  deal  with  the  situation, 
and  such  Theodore  proved  to  be  during  the  twenty- 
two  years  of  his  episcopate,  although  he  was  far  from 
young  at  the  start.  His  appointment  was  as  thor- 
oughly justified  as  that  of  the  late  Archbishop  Tem- 
ple, his  far-off  successor.  **He  was  called  upon  to 
unite  the  Church  of  the  English,  to  organize  it  by 

[140] 


THE  COMING  OF  THEODORE 

giving  it  an  efficient  and  orderly  Episcopate  and  the 
means  of  self-government,  to  institute  a  rational  dis- 
ciplinary system,  and  to  train  ''the  religions"  of  both 
sexes  from  an  overweening  enthusiasm  for  extrava- 
gant ascetcism  to  a  zeal  for  learning  and  teaching. ' ' 

Benedict  Bicop  was  appointed  by  Theodore  to  the 
temporary  charge  of  the  Abbey  of  St.  Peter  and  St. 
Paul  at  Canterbury,  and  Hadrian  accompanied  the 
new  archbishop  in  his  first  round  of  visitation  through- 
out his  vast  province.  He  visited  all  the  Sees  of  the 
Heptarchy,  studying  the  situation  in  each,  supplying 
what  was  lacking,  strengthening  the  things  that  re- 
mained, establishing  with  a  firm  hand  his  Metropoli- 
tan authority,  disseminating  the  rule  of  right  living 
and  the  Catholic  mode  of  celebrating  Easter.  He  was 
everywhere  received  with  honor,  and  his  authority  was 
everywhere  recognized  as  that  of  "the  right  man  in 
the  right  place,"  who  was  sorely  needed. 

One  of  Theodore's  first  measures  was  to  fill  the 
vacant  Sees.  Putta  was  consecrated  for  Rochester, 
Bisi  for  East  Anglia,  and  Leutherius  for  Wessex. 
When  Northumbria  was  reached,  Theodore  effected 
an  amicable  settlement  of  a  difficult  case.  Not  satis- 
fied with  the  regularity  of  Chad 's  consecration  to  that 
very  important  See,  he  promptly  secured  his  resigna- 
tion. According  to  Bede,  the  very  humble  Chad,  an- 
swered in  characteristic  fashion,  "If  you  are  per- 
suaded that  I  received  the  episcopate  in  an  irregular 
manner,  I  willingly  retire  from  the  office,  for  I  never 
thought  myself  worthy  of  it. ' '  Wilfrid  was  promptly 
put  back  in  the  place  to  which  he  had  been  originally 

[141] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

appointed,  and  resumed  business  at  the  old  stand, 
Having  supplied  whatever  he  regarded  as  lacking 
in  Chad's  orders,  the  Archbishop  soon  had  him  trans- 
ferred to  Lichfield,  as  we  have  seen.  In  this  connec- 
tion we  have  one  of  the  very  few  personal  traits  of 
Theodore  which  Bede  has  preserved,  and  which  shows 
that  the  stern,  autocratic  and  strong-handed  prelate 
was  not  without  a  tender  place  in  his  heart.  His 
special  liking  for  the  holy  and  humble  Chad  increases 
our  liking  for  Theodore.  The  Archbishop  insisted 
that  Chad  should  not  make  such  long  episcopal  jour- 
Qcys  on  foot;  and  when  he  could  not  otherwise  over- 
come the  bishop's  reluctance  to  the  luxury  of  riding 
on  horseback,  he  said,  "You  shall  ride,"  and  then 
lifted  Chad  bodily  into  the  saddle.  I  wonder  what 
Chad  would  have  thought  of  an  automobile.  This 
sounds  not  unlike  some  of  the  stories  of  Archbishop 
Temple. 

Having  thus  made  a  fair  beginning  towards  the 
stupendous  work  of  organizing  his  Church,  Theodore 's 
next  step  was  to  summon  the  first  deliberative  and 
legislative  body  of  the  whole  English  Church.  It 
met  at  Hertford  on  September  24th,  673.  According 
to  the  Nicene  rules  and  the  canons  of  the  later  Gen- 
eral Councils,  a  Provincial  Synod  was  a  necessary 
part  of  a  regular  Church  organization.  Such  Synods 
had  become  usual  in  the  Western  church  elsewhere, 
and  even  the  banished  British  Church  in  Wales  had 
not  given  up  its  Synods.  The  new  English  Church, 
its  successor  and  supplanter,  was  now  to  take  its 
proper  place  in  Catholic  Christendom  by  organizing 

[142] 


THE  COMING  OF  THEODORE 

its  first  Provincial  Synod.  Theodore  the  Metropolitan 
presided.  Only  four  of  his  six  bishops  were  present 
in  person.  Wilfrid  was  represented  only  by  his  dele- 
gates, and  Wini,  the  simoniacal  bishop  of  London,  did 
Qot  show  up  either  in  person  or  by  proxy.  Strictly 
speaking,  the  Synod  was  composed  of  Bishops  only, 
according  to  the  ancient  usage,  which  might  have 
beep  improved.  But  it  was  no  violation  of  Catholic 
custom  that  there  should  sit  with  the  bishops  on  this 
occasion,  as  Bede  has  it,  ''Many  other  teachers  of  the 
Church  who  loved  and  were  acquainted  with  the 
canonical  statutes  of  the  fathers."  Bede  has  pre- 
served the  account  of  the  Archbishop  himself  duly 
attested  by  Titillus,  his  notary.  Its  proceeding  opened 
with  the  solemn  invocation:  "In  the  name  of  our 
Lord  God  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  who  reigns  for- 
ever and  ever,  and  governs  His  Church,  it  was  thought 
meet  that  we  should  assemble,  according  to  the  cus- 
tom of  the  venerable  canons,  to  treat  about  the  neces- 
sary affairs  of  the  Church." 

Then  follows  the  Primate's  Address,  ''I  beseech 
you,  most  dear  brothers,  for  the  love  and  fear  of  our 
Redeemer,  that  we  may  all  treat  in  common  for  our 
faith;  to  the  end  that  whatsoever  has  been  decreed 
and  defined  by  the  holy  and  reverend  fathers  may  be 
inviolably  observed  by  all. "  "  Much  more, ' '  the  Arch- 
bishop spoke,  "tending  to  the  preservation  and  unity 
of  the  Church. ' '  Then  each  bishop  in  order  was  asked 
"whether  he  consented  to  observe  the  things  that  had 
been  formerly  canonically  decreed  by  the  fathers." 
To  which  each  answered,  "Placet" — "It  so  pleases 

[143] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

us,  and  we  will  all  most  willingly  observe  with  a 
cheerful  mind  whatever  is  laid  down  in  the  Canons 
of  the  holy  fathers." 

Whereupon  the  Primate  produced  a  collection  of 
such  Canons,  beginning  with  the  so-called  "Apostolic 
Canons"  and  including  those  of  the  principal  Coun- 
cils from  Nicea  to  Chalcedon.  From  these  he  selected 
ten  as  specially  appropriate  to  the  then  needs  of  the 
English  Church. 

In  brief ,  this  is  the  summary :  (I)  That  all  should 
keep  Easter  on  the  Sunday  after  the  14th  moon; 
(II)  That  no  bishop  should  trespass  on  the  diocese 
of  another;  (III)  That  no  bishop  should  trouble  any 
monastery  or  take  away  its  possessions;  (IV)  That 
no  monk  should  wander  from  his  own  monastery  to 
another  unless  by  permission  of  his  abbot;  (V)  That 
no  clergyman  should  leave  his  diocese  without  letters 
commendatory  from  his  diocesan,  and  should  return 
if  summoned  by  his  bishop,  on  pain  of  excommunica- 
tion; (VI)  That  stranger  bishops  and  clergy  should 
not  officiate  in  a  diocese  without  leave  of  the  diocesan ; 
(VII)  That  a  synod  should  meet  twice  a  year — after 
debate,  once  a  year  (at  a  place  called  Clovesho)  was 
agreed  upon;  (VIII)  That  precedence  among  bishops 
should  be  regulated  by  the   dates   of   consecration; 

(IX)  That  the  number  of  the  episcopate  should  be  in- 
creased— which  was  debated,  but  action  was  deferred ; 

(X)  That  only  lawful  marriage  should  be  allowed; 
That  no  one  should  leave  his  wife  except,  as  the 
Gospel  teaches,  for  the  cause  of  fornication,  and  that 

[144] 


THE  COMING  OF  THEODORE 

no  Christian  who  had  put  away  his  wife  should  marry 
another. 

When  these  Canons  had  been  accepted  the  Notary 
wrote  them  out,  and  the  archbishops  and  bishops 
formally  signed  their  names  thereto.  "This  act," 
says  Bishop  Stubbs,  ''which  seems  to  be  a  formal 
acceptance  on  the  part  of  the  English  Churches  of 
the  common  Diocesan  system  of  the  Church  at  large, 
is  of  the  highest  historical  importance  as  the  first  con- 
stitutional measure  of  the  collective  English  race;  no 
act  of  secular  legislation  can  be  produced  parallel  to 
it  before  the  reign  of  Alfred,  or  rather  of  his  son 
Edward." 

Such,  then,  was  the  first  legislative  body  that  made 
laws  for  all  the  English, — the  precursor,  therefore,  not 
only  of  the  later  Convocations  of  the  Church,  but  also 
of  the  National  Witenagemots  and  Parliaments  of 
England — so  that  Theodore  holds  an  important  place 
among  the  Makers  of  England,  as  well  as  of  the  Eng- 
lish Church.  ''It  was  the  Ecclesistical  Synods,"  says 
Green,  "which  by  their  example  led  the  way  to  our 
National  Parliament,  as  it  was  the  Canons  enacted  in 
such  Synods  which  led  the  way  to  a  national  system 
of  law."  "This  year  673,"  says  Charles  Hole,  "was 
at  least  150  years  before  the  civil  rule  of  the  Hep- 
tarchy coalesced  into  a  Monarchy.  In  other  words, 
the  English  Church  is  much  older  than  the  English 
Monarchy.  * ' 

The  Canon  passed  at  Hertford  which  prescribed  an 
annual  church  council  could  hardly  be  carried  out 
with  any  regularity  during  the  unsettled  condition  of 

[145J 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGTiAND 

political  affairs  and  the  wars  between  the  kingdoms. 
But  the  precedent  was  established,  and  Theodore  cer- 
tainly held  a  second  Synod  at  Hatfield  in  680 — the 
only  other  in  his  day  of  which  we  have  any  record. 
This  was  called  in  compliance  with  Pope  Agatho's 
desire  that  the  English  Church  should  take  action  in 
regard  to  the  monothelite  heresy.  This  was  done  in 
the  most  orthodox  fashion.  A  notable  fact  mentioned 
by  Bede,  in  his  account  of  this  Synod,  is  its  acknow- 
ledgment, at  so  early  a  date  of  what  is  called  the 
^'Filioque'^  in  the  Creed,  the  double  procession  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  from  the  Father  and  the  Son.  After  de- 
claring its  acceptance  of  the  Five  Ecumenical  and  the 
Lateran  Council  at  Rome,  it  closes  with  an  ' '  ascription 
of  glory  to  God — the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost  proceeding  from  the  Father  and  the  Son  in 
an  ineffable  manner,  as  those  holy  apostles,  prophets, 
and  doctors  did  declare." 

Theodore,  having  now  made  the  Diocesan  Episco- 
pate a  practical  reality,  and  tied  the  bishop  to  his  See, 
and  given  him  a  definite  body  of  laws  by  which  to 
administer  it, — the  next  step  was  to  increase  the  num- 
ber of  English  bishops  from  seven  to  seventeen.  He 
proposed  to  accomplish  this  by  dividing  the  immense 
sees  coterminous  with  the  kingdoms,  until  each  bishop 
should  have  a  manageable  diocese,  in  which  he  might 
have  a  chance  to  do  the  work  required.  He  had  raised 
this  question  in  the  Synod  at  Hertford,  but  it  had 
met  with  opposition,  and  no  action  had  been  taken. 
It  was  undoubtedly  a  necessary  thing  to  do,  and  it 
could  only  be  done  by  radical  measures,  in  which 

[146] 


THE  COMING  OF  THEODORE 

Theodore  strained  "the  one-man  power"- — sometimes 
a  necessity  but  always  dangerous — to  the  utmost. 
His  first  efforts  in  this  direction  caused  -little  trouble. 
The  sickness  and  retirement  of  Bisi  from  the  bishopric 
of  East  Anglia  gave  him  the  opportunity  to  divide 
that  diocese  into  two,  one  for  the  North  folk  and  the 
other  for  the  South  folk.  In  Mercia  he  took  the 
autocratic  measure  of  deposing  Winfrid  the  successor 
of  Chad  for  some  disobedience  of  which  we  are 
ignorant,  and  dividing  that  immense  diocese  into  five — 
Lichfield,  Hertford,  Worcester,  Leicester  and  Syd- 
nacester.  His  method  of  proceeding  seems  to  have 
been  to  get  the  approval  of  the  King  and  his  Witan, 
and  then  to  go  ahead,  whether  the  bishop  chiefly  con- 
cerned liked  it  or  not.  The  division  of  Wessex  was, 
however,  postponed  until  after  the  death  of  its  bishop. 
But  the  battle-royal  came  when  Northumbria  was 
reached,  and  two  strong  wills  like  those  of  Theodore 
and  Wilfrid  came  into  collision.  Then  you  could  see 
the  fur  fly.  Wilfrid  was  already  in  hot  water  with 
King  Egfrid  and  his  new  queen  (new  queens  are  apt 
to  be  partial  to  new  methods),  and  they  were  only 
too  glad  to  see  him  shorn  of  a  good  part  of  his  power 
and  pomp. 

It  must  be  admitted,  I  think,  that  Theodore  dealt 
far  from  frankly  or  fairly  with  Wilfrid,  when,  in 
conjunction  with  his  enemy  the  King  and  after  con- 
sulting other  bishops,  he  proceeded  to  divide  Wil- 
frid's diocese  and  even  to  consecrate  bishops  for  the 
three  newly  created  sees  therein,  without  consulting 
him  or  even  giving  him  notice  beforehand.    It  seems 

[147] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHUECH  OF  ENGLAND 

to  have  been  taken  for  granted  by  all  parties  that 
Wilfrid  would  never  consent — which  was  doubtless 
true — and  that  the  thing  must  be  done  without  his 
consent.  Wilfrid  seems  to  have  been  absent  at  the 
time,  but,  upon  his  return  he  appeared  promptly  be- 
fore Egfrid  and  Theodore  in  a  Northumbrian  gemot, 
and  demanded  why  his  diocese  was  thus  cut  up  with- 
out his  consent.  He  found  little  comfort  in  the  cool 
reply,  ' '  We  find  no  fault  in  you,  but  we  have  thought 
good  to  do  this,  and  we  shall  abide  by  it.''  William 
of  Malmesbury  fitly  quotes  Juvenal's  ^^sic  volo,  sic 
juheo.'^  Without  further  parleying  Wilfrid  an- 
nounced that  he  would  carry  his  case  to  what  he  con- 
sidered the  fountain-head  of  authority,  of  equity  and 
justice.  He  soon  appeared  in  person  at  Rome  and 
made  his  appeal  for  justice  to  Pope  Agatho, — one  of 
whose  predecessors  had  sent  Augustine  to  found  the 
Church  of  the  English,  and  another,  Vitalian,  had 
recently  chosen  and  consecrated  Theodore  as  arch- 
bishop of  the  English.  This  first  instance  in  English 
history  of  an  appeal  to  the  Pope  against  the  action 
of  the  English  civil  and  ecclesiastical  authorities  was 
a  precedent  destined  to  bring  ever-increasing  trouble 
and  conflict  as  the  papal  pretensions  steadily  ad- 
vanced, and  was  never  finally  settled  until  it  was 
settled  right  at  the  Reformation.  Wilfrid,  of  course, 
was  received  with  greater  eclat  than  ever  at  Rome. 
Theodore  simply  sent  one  of  his  monks,  Kenwarld, 
with  a  written  statement  of  his  side  of  the  controversy. 
The  case  was  duly  considered  by  the  Pope  and  his 
council.    They  decided  (wisely  enough)  that  Wilfrid 

[148] 


THE  COMING  OF  THEODORE 

should  be  restored  to  his  original  bishopric,  that  the 
intruding  bishops  should  be  ousted,  and,  this  done, 
that  Wilfrid  himself,  with  the  consent  of  a  synod 
to  be  called  at  York,  should  choose  bishops  as 
assistants  with  whom  he  could  live  peaceably,  who 
should  be  consecrated  by  Theodore.  The  usual  penal- 
ties were  denounced  against  all  who  should  attempt 
to  resist  this  sentence,  or  not  receive  it  obediently. 
Wilfrid  returned  in  triumph,  to  Northumbria  bearing 
as  the  banner  of  his  victory  the  papal  decree  with 
its  leaden  bullae  and  its  Apostolic  seal  duly  attached. 
But  the  presentation  of  this  formidable  document  to 
the  King  and  his  Witan  was  far  from  striking  terror 
into  their  stubborn  hearts.  They  rejected  with  in- 
dignation and  scorn  the  man  who  had  sought  the 
interference  of  any  foreign  authority,  even  the  most 
venerated,  in  their  domestic  affairs.  There  is  no 
question,  I  think,  that,  as  things  stood  then,  Wilfrid 
had  the  right  to  appeal  from  the  decision  of  his 
Metropolitan  to  the  Pope,  and  that  the  Pope  had  the 
right  to  pronounce  the  decision  of  the  Papal  court; 
but  it  is  probable  that  the  ''Decretal"  was  not  re- 
garded yet  as  a  command,  and  that  neither  party  was 
bound  to  accept  it  as  more  than  advice.  It  is  worthy 
of  notice  that  neither  Theodore  nor  King  Egbert  and 
his  council  raised  the  question  as  to  the  Pope's  right 
to  decide  the  case.  They  avoided  even  considering 
it,  but  took  a  short  cut  towards  disposing  of  the  mat- 
ter by  denying  the  genuiness  of  the  decree,  charging 
Wilfrid  with  bribery  and  imposture.  For  these  high 
crimes  and  misdemeanors  the   civil  authorities  Ben- 

[149] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

tenced  him  to  nine  months  imprisonment  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  banishment.  As  Mr.  Hole  has  it,  ' '  No  blame 
of  the  Pope  is  expressed,  but  only  of  Wilfrid,  whose 
attempt  to  browbeat  the  indignant  thanes  in  the 
Pope 's  name  was  probably  the  great  and  sole  occasion 
of  their  anger.  Such  was  the  resistance  which  the 
first  act  of  ultramontanism  encountered  among  the 
Anglo-Saxons."  ('*A  Manual  of  English  Church 
History.") 

Mr.  Hole  also  raises  a  question  as  to  the  Contents 
of  the  Papal  Letters  because  "the  historian  gives 
no  text,''  and  the  only  historian  here  is  Wilfrid's 
biographer  and  biased  partizan,  Eddi.  But,  taking 
the  Letters  as  genuine,  their  censure  of  Theodore  was 
not  very  severe.  ''Their  decision,"  says  Dr.  Alfred 
Plummer,  ''was  a  very  wise  one.  Wilfrid  had  been 
irregularly  deprived  of  the  greater  part  of  his  diocese, 
and  the  bishops  who  had  been  violently  intruded  must 
be  expelled.  But — Theodore  had  done  the  right  thing, 
though  he  had  done  it  in  the  wrong  way.  Wilfrid 
must  hold  a  council  at  York,  and  with  the  council's 
concurrence  select  bishops  to  assist  him.  He  must 
choose  men  with  whom  he  could  work  peaceably,  and 
then  present  them  to  Theodore  to  be  consecrated. 
Thus  each  side  got  what  was  essential — ^Wilfrid  tha:t 
his  rights  as  Bishop  of  York  should  be  respected; 
Theodore  that  so  large  a  diocese  should  have  more 
than  one  bishop."  ("The  Churches  in  Britain  be- 
fore A.  D.  1000.") 

Wilfrid's  lack  of  patriotism  and  loyalty  to  his  own 
Nation  and  Church  was  punished  by  the  loss  of  the 

[150] 


THE  COMING  OF  THEODORE 

See  of  York,  by  imprisonment  for  nine  months,  fol- 
lowed by  banishment.  It  was  after  this  banishment 
that  he  devoted  six  years  of  heroic  and  successful 
service  to  the  conversion  of  the  Sussex  barbarians,  and 
proved  his  Christian  heroism.  Defeat  never  daunted 
him,  nor  made  him  idle  nor  despondent.  It  brought 
out  his  best  qualities. 

Theodore,  unmoved  by  the  decision  of  Rome,  proved 
himself,  though  foreign-born,  a  loyal  Englishman  and 
Churchman,  like  Archbishop  Langton  of  a  later  day, 
and  went  calmly  on  with  his  work  of  dividing  up  the 
unwieldy  diocese  of  Northumbria,  making  a  new  Bee 
now  as  far  north  as  the  firth  of  Forth.  He  was  not 
minded  to  be  a  mere  Roman  Legate,  but  set  the  exam- 
ple of  ignoring  Papal  interference  with  the  rights  of 
the  English  Church  and  Nation  which  distinguished 
England  for  centuries  to  come.  With  all  due  and 
even  devout  deference  for  the  Apostolic  See,  which 
had  sent  him  hither,  the  Archbishop  of  the  English 
would  attend  to  his  own  business  and  rule  his  own 
suffragans. 

It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  Theodore  and  "Wilfrid 
were  subsequently  reconciled,  and  that  the  Archbishop, 
softened  by  his  approaching  end,  used  all  his  in- 
fluenced to  repair  the  wrong  done  to  Wilfrid.  He 
was  too  good  and  great  a  man  not  to  show  his  appre- 
ciation of  that  prelate's  splendid  services  in  Sussex 
by  opening  the  way  for  his  restoration  to  a  great  part 
of  his  original  bishopric.  The  death  of  King  Egfrid 
and  other  changes  in  Northumbria  gave  the  oppor- 
tunity for  Wilfrid's  return.    At  Theodore's  request, 

[151] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  new  King,  Aldfrid,  restored  Wilfrid  to  the  See 
of  York,  much  diminished  in  size,  and  to  the  monastery 
at  Ripon.  During  a  vacancy  in  the  new  Sees  of  Hex- 
ham and  Lindisfarne,  he  had  charge  also  of  those. 
Thus,  temporarily  at  least,  Wilfrid  regained  a  great 
part  of  his  former  prestige. 

Theodore  died  September  19th,  690,  aged  eighty- 
eight.  On  his  tomb  at  Canterbury,  Bede,  tells  us, 
was  engraven  an  epitaph  of  thirty-four  verses,  but 
it  has  been  well  said  that  Bede  himself  surpasses 
all  that  they  may  have  said  by  his  simple  testimony, 
''In  his  Episcopate  the  English  Churches  received 
more  spiritual  benefit  than  they  could  ever  gain 
before  his  time.'* 

Few  men  were  more  competent  than  the  late 
Bishop  Stubbs  of  Oxford  to  sum  up  the  signal  ser- 
vices of  this  great  archbishop: — "It  is  difficult,  if 
not  impossible,"  he  says,  '*to  overstate  the  debt 
which  England,  Europe,  and  Christian  civilization 
owe  to  the  work  of  Theodore.  He  was  the  real  or- 
ganizer of  the  administrative  system  of  the  English 
Church,  and  in  that  work  laid  the  foundation  of 
National  unity.  He  brought  the  learning  and  cul- 
ture of  the  Eastern  Empire  into  the  West,  and, 
with  the  aid  of  Hadrian  and  Benedict  Bishop,  es- 
tablished schools  from  which  the  scholars  and  mis- 
sionaries of  the  following  century  went  out  to 
rekindle  the  light  of  Christian  culture  in  France 
and  the  recently  converted  parts  of  Germany;  and 
thus  formed  a  most  important  link  between  ancient 
and    modern    life;    his    culture    was    for    the    time 

[152] 


THE  COMING  OF  THEODORE 

enlightened  and  tolerant,  and,  although  he  has  never 
been  canonized,  or  even  beatified,  both  his  character 
and  his  work  seem  to  place  him  among  the  first  and 
greatest  of  the  saints  whom  God  has  used  for  the 
building  up  of  the  Church  and  development  of  the 
culture  of  the  world.'*  (''Dictionary  of  Christian 
Biography.")  After  Theodore's  death  (at  which 
Wilfrid  was  probably  not  the  chief  mourner) 
that  wilful  man  broke  loose  again.  Failing  to 
profit  by  his  humiliating  experiences,  he  brought 
upon  himself  the  same  troubles  all  over  again — 
which  shows  that  Theodore  had  not  been  the  chief 
offender.  Wilfrid  and  King  Alfrid,  successor  of 
Egfrid,  soon  quarreled  about  his  rights  and  digni- 
ties. The  case  went  against  the  bishop  in  England. 
Again  he  appealed  to  Rome,  and  Pope  Sergius  took 
his  part.  Aldfrid,  like  his  predecessor,  would 
brook  no  papal  interference  in  his  kingdom.  The 
new  Archbishop  Bertwald  sided  with  the  King  and 
his  Witan,  Wilfrid's  claims  and  the  Pope's  together 
were  rejected  by  a  great  national  synod  of  the  whole 
Church  at  Easterfield  in  702,  and  Wilfrid  was  de- 
posed. Again  he  journeyed  to  Rome,  at  the  age  of 
seventy,  and  another  pope,  John  VI,  pronounced  in 
his  favor^  and  again  the  papal  decree  fell  flat  in 
England,  and  Wilfrid  was  in  greater  disfavor  than 
ever.  Finally,  after  the  death  of  King  Aldfrid,  a 
compromise  was  effected  in  a  Northumbrian  local 
synod  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Nidd  in  705,  and 
Wilfrid  was  limited  until  his  death  in  709,  to  the 
bishopric  of  Hexam  and  his  old  monastery  at  Ripon — 

[153] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

John  of  Beverley  being  promoted  from  Hexham  to 
the  more  important  one  of  York.  His  later  appeals 
to  Rome — his  Romo-mania — only  served  to  lose  him 
the  dignified  position  which  Theodore  had  gained 
for  him  as  bishop  of  the  wealthy  and  historic  See 
of  York.  **Let  ns  hope,"  says  Bright,  ''that  the 
once  fiery  and  imperial  spirit  of  "Wilfrid,  bent  and 
chastened  by  age  and  troubles,  was  content  with  the 
prospect  of  grief  and  peace  in  exchange  for  the 
hope  of  ascendancy." 

The  Rev.  M.  W.  Patterson,  in  his  recent  **  History 
of  the  Church  of  England,"  has  well  summed  up 
his  character: — *'In  709  Wilfrid  died.  If  his  career 
is  analysed,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  cause  of  his 
many  troubles  was  his  opposition  to  national  senti- 
ment and  his  overbearing,  unconciliating  temper. 
He  had  the  characteristic  Roman  lust  for  ecclesias- 
tical domination;  his  haughty  temper  could  not 
brook  opposition.  Humble  and  lowly  in  his  own 
private  life,  he  was  bent  on  magnifying  his  ecclesi- 
astical office  and  the  claims  of  Rome.  He  was  the 
fore-runner  of  Thomas  Becket.  Yet  with  all  this 
he  was  full  of  love  for  the  poor,  a  zealous  missionary 
to  the  heathen,  eager  to  win  souls  for  Christ.  His 
was  a  mixed  nature,  of  a  type  that  has  often  been 
found  in  ecclesiastics." 

Wilfrid,  by  his  brilliant  and  versatile,  but  erratic, 
genius;  and  Theodore  by  his  calm,  orderly  common 
sense,  by  his  clear-headed  and  hard-headed  talents 
for  organization, — each  contributed  much  to  the 
making  of  the  Church  of  the  English  race.     Even 

[154] 


THE  COMING  OF  THEODORE 

their  tremendous  conflict  was  overruled  to  serve  a 
good  purpose.  It  did  more  than  almost  anything 
else  to  develop  a  National  spirit  in  State  and  Church, 
to  call  forth  in  each  the  love  of  independence  and 
self-government,  and  the  spirit  of  resistance  to  for- 
eign domination. 

Exactly  how  Wilfrid  lost  his  preeminent  prestige 
and  popularity  in  Northumbria  we  do  not  know. 
Nor  are  we  likely  ever  to  know,  since  the  most 
competent  historians,  ancient  and  modern,  who  have 
sifted  all  the  *' sources"  and  weighed  all  the  evid- 
ence in  the  case,  have  not  been  able  to  bring  in  a 
verdict.     The  jury  cannot  agree. 

Bede  must  have  known  all  the  facts,  but  he  would 
not  tell.  He  tells  us  too  little,  and  Eddi  tells  entirely 
too  much,  and  of  too  biased  a  character.  The  ice 
was  doubtless  very  thin  in  some  places,  and  Bede 
kept  away  from  these,  while  Eddi  (not  seeing  the 
sign,  '^Danger,"  which  Bede  had  put  up),  went  in 
over  his  head.  Bede's  account  is  simply  this, 
''There  arose  a  dissension  between  the  King  Egfrid 
and  the  most  reverend  Bishop  Wilfrid,  and  the 
bishop  was  driven  from  his  see,  and  two  bishops  put 
in  his  place."  Wilfrid  was  evidently  a  genius  and 
highly  accomplished,  but  of  most  imperious  spirit 
and  vaulting  ambition,  with  his  eye  probably  on  an 
Archbishopric  for  himself  at  York  —  which  came, 
indeed,  to  that  great  see  later,  but  not  until  about 
twenty-five  years  after  Wilfrid's  death.  We  are 
told,  often,  that  there  were  "charges"  against  him, 
but  we  are  not  told  exactly  what  the  charges  were. 

[155] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

No  crimes  are  charged  against  him — there  was  no 
question  af  faith  or  morals  involved.  But  the  prob- 
abilities are  that  his  unique  and  commanding  per- 
sonality, and  the  vast  power  and  wealth  under  his 
control  made  him  a  formidable  rival  to  both  King 
and  Archbishop,  and  a  constant  menace  to  the  peace 
of  both  State  and  Church.  Egfrid  found  Wilfrid's 
pastoral  staff  overshadowing  his  own  sceptre,  and 
also  a  rival  to  the  Primate's  Pall.  It  was  necessary 
to  the  rule  of  both  that  his  vast  power  and  wealth 
should  be  diminished  and  his  immense  diocese  di- 
vided into  several.  Why  should  he  alone  be  an  ex- 
ception to  Bede's  broad  statements:  ''Theodore  was 
the  first  archbishop  whom  all  the  English  Church 
obeyed,"  and  "Theodore  visiting  all  parts,  ordained 
bishops  in  proper  places,  and,  with  their  assistance, 
corrected  such  things  as  he  found  faulty.' '  Here  was 
something  "faulty,"  which  King  and  Archbishop,  in 
4he  interest  of  the  Common  Weal,  in  behalf  of  the 
best  interest  and  unity  of  both  State  and  Church, 
combined  to  correct.  The  King  seems  to  have  played 
the  most  conspicuous  part,  and  to  have  done  the 
most  talking  (with  the  voluble  young  queen's  assis- 
tance) ;  but  the  grand  old  man,  Theodore,  grim, 
and  solemn  and  silent,  was  "the  man  behind  the 
guns."  He  was  wise  enough  to  know  that  there  is 
a  time  to  keep  silence.  He  had  already  managed  to 
lose  his  hearing  sufficiently  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  Rome, 
and  now  he  was  dumb  also. 

Where    Theodore   had    found   seven   bishoprics   in 
England  he  left  seventeen — about  the  same  number 

[156] 


THE  COMING  OF  THEODORE 

that  Henry  VIII  found  at  his  accession  to  the  throne. 
No  fewer  than  twenty-one  bishops  were  consecrated 
by  him  in  twenty-two  years.  He  made  the  Diocesan 
system  of  the  English  Church  virtually  what  it  has 
continued  to  be  ever  since,  except  that  he  more  wisely 
(certainly  for  his  own  times)  centred  it  in  one  Met- 
ropolitan See,  instead  of  two,  as  proposed  by  St. 
Gregory.  And  his  Diocesan  system,  following  the 
tribal  divisions  of  each  kingdom,  laid  the  foundation 
and  prepared  the  way  for  the  English  Parochial 
system,  which  was  slowly  developed  through  the 
succeeding  centuries  into  what  it  has  long  been. 
Just  as  the  Bishop,  whom  he  found  little  more  than 
a  royal  chaplain  and  chief  missionary  for  each  king- 
dom, became  the  responsible  head  of  a  territorial 
diocese,  so  the  chaplain  of  some  thegn  or  large  land- 
holder, gradually  became  the  settled  Priest  for  that 
holding  and  its  people.  Its  territory  became  his 
Parish,  for  which  he  was  responsible  as  the  Parson 
(persona  ecclesiae).  Bede  notices  at  least  the  begin- 
nings of  such  rural  churches  and  local  clergy.  Theo- 
dore had  been  familiar  with  the  **paroichia"  in  the 
Eastern  Empire  as  the  local  ecclesiastical  centre, 
and  may  well  have  desired  an  adaptation  of  his 
native  system  which  fitted  in  so  admirably  with 
the  Teutonic  Township.  The  term  **paroichia"  was 
of  varying  signification  in  the  early  Church,  but 
it  finally  denoted  simply  the  country  communities. 
The  change  from  roving  monks,  preaching  at  rude 
mission-stations,  to  a  resident  parochial  clergy  was 
brought  about  by  encouraging  the  nobleman  to  build 

[157] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

a  church  on  his  estate,  or  in  his  township,  to  endow 
it  with  lands  and  tithes,  having  the  right  of  appoint- 
ing the  parish  priest.  That  is  the  English  Parish 
system  which  was  slowly  evolved  out  of  the  Arch- 
bishop's effective  organization  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Church . 

Look  now  at  other  practical  achievements  and 
their  beneficent  results,  —  especially  in  the  notable 
fields  of  Education,  and  of  Missionary  enterprise. 
Even  the  best  organized  Church  would  be  of  little 
worth  without  a  godly  and  well-learned  clergy. 
Theodore  did  much  to  promote  the  cause  of  better 
Education.  It  would  be  long  before  England  would 
have  such  a  parochial  clergy  as  would  enable  her  to 
dispense  with  the  monasteries,  which  were  the  chief 
centres  both  of  learning  and  of  missionary  work 
with  both  the  Keltic  and  the  Roman  evangelists. 
The  growth  of  Monasteries  under  Theodore  was 
very  considerable, — including  such  important  ones 
as  Peterborough,  Ely,  Malmesbury,  Abington,  and 
the  refounding  of  the  old  British  establishment  at 
Glastonbury.  "Wilfrid  also  had  done  much  in  this 
direction.  But  Benedict  Bishop  was  now  the  great 
leader  in  building  and  developing  the  best  side  of 
monastic  life.  He  had  come  back  to  England  with 
Theodore  from  Rome,  and  had  taken  charge  of  the 
monastery  at  Canterbury  until  Hadrian,  another 
expert  and  the  archbishop's  closest  colleague,  was 
ready  to  devote  the  rest  of  his  life  to  this  establish- 
ment. It  was  Biscop  who  afterwards  built  Jarrow 
and  Wearmouth  in  the  North,  and  enriched  them 

[158] 


THE  COMING  OF  THEODORE 

with  the  rare  literary  and  artistic  treasures  which 
he  had  gathered  in  five  visits  to  Rome  and  other 
centres  of  culture.  But  Theodore  himself  had  a 
large  share  in  the  promotion  of  Schools,  monastic 
and  other.  Combining  in  himself  both  Eastern  and 
Western  learning,  this  great  leader  did  much  to- 
wards diverting  the  later  monastic  life  of  the  Scots 
from  morbid  seclusion  and  extravagant  ascetisism 
into  healthier  and  more  serviceable  channels,  mak- 
ing the  monasteries  centres  of  study  and  scholarship 
for  clergy  and  laity.  He  took  a  personal  part  in  the 
teaching  at  Canterbury,  where  he  and  Hadriaii 
created  something  like  a  University  for  higher  edu- 
cation, which  furnished  the  model  for  similar  Schools 
at  York  and  elsewhere.  Among  his  pupils  were 
John  of  Beverley,  afterwards  bishop  of  Hexham 
and  later  of  York, — and  Aldhelm,  soon  to  be  consid- 
ered one  of  the  first  scholars  of  his  day  in  England, 
afterwards  the  saintly  Abbot  of  Malmesbury  and 
first  Bishop  of  Sherborne.  Each  of  these  scholars  of 
Professor  Theodore  has  told  a  good  story  of  their 
illustrious  teacher.  We  are  told  by  John  that  Theo- 
dore lectured  sometimes  on  Medicine.  On  this  sub- 
ject, however,  he  can  hardly  be  counted  a  very  high 
authority.  "Nobody  knows  it  all,  not  even  the 
youngest"  (nor  yet  the  oldest).  And,  as  Professor 
of  Materia  Medica,  the  Primate  left  something  to  be 
desired.  For  John  of  Beverley  quoted  a  maxim  of 
his,  that  "it  was  dangerous  to  bleed  a  patient  when 
moon  and  tide  were  waxing,"  and  also  expressed 
his  belief  that  "hare's  flesh  was  good  for  dysentery." 

[159] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Aldhelm  wrote  a  letter  to  a  friend  which  shows  that 
more  vigorous  remedies  were  applied  in  the  case  of 
some  obstreperous  Irish  students  who  badgered  the 
elderly  philosopher.  ''He  treated  them,"  we  are 
told,  '*as  the  truculent  boar  treats  the  Molossian 
hounds.  He  tore  them  with  the  tusk  of  Grammar, 
and  shot  them  with  the  deep  and  sharp  syllogisms  of 
Chronography,  till  they  cast  away  their  weapons, 
and  hurriedly  fled  to  the  recesses  of  their  dens. ' ' 

''Forasmuch,"  says  Bede  of  Theodore  and  Had- 
rian, "as  both  of  them  were  well  read  both  in  sacred 
and  in  secular  literature,  they  gathered  a  crowd  of 
disciples,  and  there  daily  flowed  from  them  rivers 
of  knowledge  to  water  the  hearts  of  their  hearers; 
and,  together  with  the  books  of  Holy  Writ,  they  also 
taught  them  the  arts  of  ecclesiastical  poetry,  astron- 
omy and  arithmetic.  A  testimony  of  which  is,  that 
there  are  still  living  at  this  day  some  of  their 
scholars  who  are  as  well  versed  in  the  Greek  and 
Latin  tongues  as  in  their  own  in  which  they  were 
born.  Nor  were  there  ever  happier  days  since  the 
English  came  into  Britain." 

Few  of  us,  I  think,  are  aware  of  the  Literary 
accumulations  in  Great  Britain  at  this  period,  and 
of  the  Educational  influences  which  afterwards 
went  forth  into  Europe  from  a  real  revival  of  learn- 
ing here.  In  his  recent  valuable  "Commentaries  on 
the  History  of  England,"  Professor  Burrows  has 
the  following  statement:  "Bede  owed  his  remarka- 
ble education  not  only  to  the  Keltic  stock  of  learning 
concentrated    at   J  arrow,    and   to   the    importations 

[160] 


THE  COMING  OF  THEODORE 

of  Wilfrid  and  Biscop  from  Rome,  but  also  to  the 
labors  of  Theodore  and  Hadrian.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  in  this  way  the  British  Isles  became 
the  repository  of  the  literary  stores  which  had  been 
swept  off  the  barbarized  Continent  during  the  Dark 
Ages;  and  then  the  medium  by  which  they  were  re- 
stored to  the  world.  In  Ireland,  in  Scotland,  in 
Northumbria,  and  in  Kent,  the  ancient  accumula- 
tions, destroyed  elsewhere,  were  safely  treasured  up 
for  future  use,  and  were  ready  to  be  dispersed 
again  when  Charles  the  Great  reduced  Europe  to 
order.  Then  came  once  more  the  turn  of  the  Con- 
tinent, when  Charles'  tutor,  the  Northumbrian  Al- 
cuin  (born  in  the  year  in  which  Bede  died,  and 
educated  in  the  school  at  York),  who  had  gathered 
up  into  himself  the  whole  harvest  of  English  cultiva- 
tion, became  the  chief  agent  of  the  great  Emperor 
in  the  education  of  Europe.  .  .  .  When  England, 
ruined  and  laid  waste  (bj^  the  Danes),  rallied  from 
crushing  disaster,  it  was  fain  to  import  from  abroad 
the  pupils  of  the  men  w^hom  it  had  formerly  sent 
forth.  Who  could  have  foreseen  that,  amidst  the 
decay  of  moribund  civilizations,  the  replenishing 
agency,  like  the  supply  of  electric  fluid  to  exhausted 
atmospheres,  should  always  be  ready  at  hand  to 
repair  the  waste?" 

If  Caedmon  w^as  the  father  of  English  Poetry, 
Bede  was  the  father  of  English  History,  and  indeed 
of  English  Literature — the  man  in  whom  "the  whole 
learning  of  an  age  seemed  to  be  summed  up."  In 
his  Epitaph  at  Durham  he  is  styled,  ''An  English- 

[161] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

man,  born  in  an  obscure  corner  of  the  world,  who  by 
his  knowledge  enlightened  the  whole  universe — who 
searched  the  treasures  of  all  divine  and  human 
learning."  To  him,  more  than  all  others  together, 
we  are  indebted  for  our  knowledge  of  the  Early 
English  Church  during  the  first  century  and  a 
quarter  of  its  existence.  Making  some  allowance 
for  his  Roman  bias,  and  more  for  the  credulity  which 
he  shared  with  his  age  in  regard  to  the  Miraculous, 
the  venerable  Bede  stands  unrivalled  in  his  day  as 
*'the  discoverer  of  the  true  scope  and  method  of 
an  historian."  There  is  little  to  record  of  a  life 
so  singularly  uneventful,  and  yet  so  extremely  fruit- 
ful. His  whole  life  from  the  year  675  to  735  was 
spent  on  the  estate  on  which  he  was  born,  and  which 
was  given  by  King  Egbert  of  Northumbria  to  Bene- 
dict Biscop  for  the  twin  monasteries  of  Wearmouth 
and  Jarrow.  At  the  age  of  seven  Bede  was  handed 
over  to  Biscop,  and  spent  the  rest  of  his  life  in  one 
or  other  of  these  united  monasteries — ^mostly  at 
Jarrow.  He  was  ordained  Deacon  at  the  age  of 
nineteen,  and  Priest  at  thirty  by  John  of  Beverley, 
Bishop  of  Hexham,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that 
he  ever  travelled  further  than  to  York,  which 
was  quite  unlike  our  New  York.  But  under  Biscop 
and  his  successor  Ceolfrith  at  Jarrow,  the  ecclesias- 
tical historian  of  the  English  people  enjoyed  here 
for  his  purposes  what  Bishop  Stubbs  calls  **  advant- 
ages which  could  not  perhaps  have  been  found  any 
where  else  in  Europe  at  the  time;  perfect  access  to 
all  the  existing  sources  of  learning  in  the  West. 

[162] 


THE  COMING  OF  THEODORE 

Nowhere  else  could  he  acquire  at  once  the  Irish,  the 
Roman,  the  Galilean,  and  the  Canterbury  learning; 
the  accumulated  stores  of  books  which  Benedict  had 
bought  at  Rome,  and  at  Vienne;  or  the  disciplinary 
instruction  drawn  from  the  monasteries  of  the  Con- 
tinent, as  well  as  from  the  Irish  missionaries."  His 
studies  and  writings  were  almost  encyclopaedic, 
covering  well  nigh  every  subject  known  to  his  day. 
He  left  behind  him  forty-five  or  more  books,  '*  includ- 
ing scores  of  commentaries  on  the  Scriptures  com- 
piled from  the  Christian  Fathers,  translations  of  the 
Bible  and  Liturgy  into  the  vulgar  tongues,  a  book 
upon  the  Saints  and  Martyrs,  biographies  of  his 
contemporaries,  treatises  on  orthography,  astron- 
omy, rhetoric,  poetry,  etc."  Besides  his  written 
books,  he  carried  on  an  extensive  correspondence 
with  persons  throughout  the  Heptarchy  and  at 
Rome,  from  whom  he  got  valuable  local  information 
at  first  hand.  Of  all  his  books,  however,  the  ''Eccle- 
siastical History"  is  his  masterpiece.  His  whole 
monotonous,  but  happy  life,  was  spent  in  learning, 
teaching,  writing,  the  devotions  and  labors  of  a 
monk.  "I  ever  found  it  sweet,"  he  says,  "to  learu 
or  to  teach  or  to  write,"  yet  he  delighted  to  leave 
his  books  whenever  the  monastery  bell  summoned 
him  to  the  daily  devotions,  "dreading,"  he  said, 
"lest  the  angels  who  hovered  there  might  have  to 
ask,  'where  is  Bede?  Why  comes  he  not  with  the 
brethren  to  the  appointed  prayers?'  " —  (a  question 
which  the  angels  might  well  ask  at  more  modem 
seats  of  learning.)     And  so  this  good  man's  schol- 

[163] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

arly  life  was  '  *  full  of  sweetness  and  light "  up  to  the 
end — his  path  ''as  the  shining  light  which  shineth 
more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day."  That  Light 
did  not  fail  him  ''at  Eventide." 

Cuthbert,  a  fellow-monk,  who  describes  his  death, 
tells  us  how  greatly  he  desired  to  finish  his  last 
book,  a  translation  of  St.  John's  Gospel  into  English. 
At  last  his  boy-scribe  Wilbert  cried  to  the  dying 
saint  and  scholar,  "Dear  Master,  there  is  only  one 
sentence  more  not  written  down."  "It  is  well," 
he  answered,  "write  it."  In  a  little  while  the  boy 
said,  "Now  it  is  finished."  He  answered,  "It  is 
well,  thou  hast  said  the  truth;  it  is  finished;  Take 
my  head  in  thy  hands,  for  I  love  to  look  on  my  holy 
place,  where  I  have  been  wont  to  pray,  and  would 
call  once  more  on  my  Father,"  Then,  as  he  lay  on 
the  floor  of  his  cell,  he  chanted  the  "Gloria  Patri," 
and  so  breathed  out  his  serene  soul  to  God ! 

None  can  doubt  in  his  case  the  fulfilment  of  the 
beautiful  prayer  with  which  he  closes  his  Ecclesias- 
tical History:  "And  I  beseech  Thee,  good  Jesu, 
to  grant  to  me,  to  whom  Thou  hast  given  to  drink 
in  with  delight  the  words  of  Thy  knowledge,  that 
through  Thy  goodness  I  may  at  length  attain  unto 
Thee  the  Fountain  of  all  wisdom,  and  appear  forever 
before  Thy  Face.    Amen ! ' ' 

Even  more  notable  and  honorable  than  the  Edu- 
cational work  of  the  English  Church,  after  its  organ- 
ization by  Theodore,  was  its  glorious  Missionary 
Workf  not  only  at  home,  but  abroad — its  Foreign 
Missions.     The  Evangelizing  spirit  of  the   Church 

[164] 


THE  COMING  OF  THEODORE 

had  not  been  quenched  by  the  withdrawal,  or  over- 
shadowing of  the  Scots,  who  had  kindled  it  in  Eng- 
land at  the  same  time  that  they  were  sending  such 
missionaries  as  Columbanus  and  Gallus  to  Gaul  and 
Switzerland,  The  Scotch-Irish  Missionaries  had 
their  worthy  successors  among  the  English  now,  who 
were  seized  with  the  desire  to  convert  their  heathen 
kinsmen  on  the  Continent;  and  their  extraordinary 
success  was  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  they  com- 
bined the  Evangelizing  power  of  the  Scots  with  the 
Organizing  power  of  Rome.  Out  of  Wilfrid's  mon- 
astery at  Ripon  came  a  Northumbrian  youth,  who, 
after  drinking  in  also  the  Irish  learning  and  zeal, 
undertook  the  work  of  evangelizing  the  Frisians, 
which  his  old  Master  Wilfrid  himself  had  inaugur- 
ated. In  the  spirit  and  after  the  example  of  St. 
Columba  of  lona,  Willibrord  with  twelve  com- 
panions landed  at  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine  in  the  year 
690,  and  labored  with  such  signal  success  among  the 
Frisians  of  Pipin  Heristal's  dominions  that  the  Pope 
made  him  Archbishop  of  Utrecht.  One  of  his  com- 
panions, from  England  also,  Swidbert  was  conse- 
crated by  Wilfrid  of  York  as  the  first  missionary 
bishop  consecrated  and  sent  from  the  English 
Church.  In  719  Willibrord  was  joined  in  Frisia  by 
an  Englishman  from  Wessex,  Winfrid  of  Crediton, 
who  then  entered  upon  one  of  the  most  extraordin- 
ary and  far-reaching  missionary  careers  in  the  whole 
history  of  Christianity.  Under  his  new  name  of 
Boniface,  Winfrid  became  the  great  Missionary 
Bishop  of  Germany  and  Archbishop  of  Maintz.    He 

[165] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

brought  over  to  Germany  many  English  monks  and 
nuns  to  reinforce  him  in  his  vast  fields,  and  several 
of  them  became  bishops  under  him.  St.  Boniface 
was  the  equal  of  St.  Columba  as  an  indefatigable 
and  successful  missionary.  He  was  the  equal,  if  not 
the  superior,  of  Theodore  as  an  organizer  and  an 
ecclesiastical  statesman.  Unlike  both,  he  was  an 
uncompromising  Papist,  because  the  Papacy,  as  then 
constituted,  seemed  to  him,  under  the  conditions 
then  existing  in  Western  Europe,  the  only  power 
that  could  could  save  Continental  Europe  from 
chaos,  Willibrord  and  Winfrid  (Boniface)  paid 
back  to  the  Pope  the  debt  which  England  owed  the 
Roman  See  for  the  sending  of  Augustine  to  found 
the  English  Church,  and  sending  Theodore  to  or- 
ganize it  into  the  National  Church  of  the  English 
race.  Boniface  both  evangelized  the  Germans  and  or- 
ganized them  into  a  powerful  Church.  He  also  re- 
formed and  reorganized  the  almost  effete  Church  of 
the  Franks  in  Gaul.  In  Gaul,  as  in  England,  the 
Scotch-Irish  could  missionize,  but  could  not  organ- 
ize. 

At  the  age  of  seventy  Boniface  laid  aside  his  Met- 
ropolitan dignity  to  return  to  his  first-love,  to 
resume  his  missionary  labors  among  the  ferocious 
Frisians,  who  put  him  to  a  cruel  death.  There  in  the 
year  755  he  completed  his  splendid  career  with  the 
martyr's  crown.  Thus  the  Frankish  and  German 
nations  were  indebted  to  the  English  Church  for 
the    revival    both    of    religion    and    learning — for 

[166] 


THE  COMING  OF  THEODORE 

Boniface  and  Alcuin,  the  two  foremost  men  of  that 
age  in  Europe  except  Charles  the  Great. 

''And  it  was  by  Anglo-Saxon  missionaries  from 
the  seventh  to  the  eleventh  centuries,"  says  Bishop 
Stubbs,  ''that  Germany,  Sweden,  Denmark,  Norway 
and  Iceland  were  converted  to  the  Gospel."  (''Lec- 
tures on  Early  English  History.") 


[167] 


VI 

The  Coming  of  the  Danes,  and  the  Ruin  and 
Revival  of  the  English  Church 

During  the  course  of  the  century  and  a  half  that 
followed  the  death  of  Archbishop  Theodore  both 
State  and  Church  passed  through  vicissitudes  many 
and  various,  culminating  in  the  Coming  of  the 
Danes,  and  the  commencement  of  the  greatest  crisis 
that  the  British  Isles  had  known  since  the  Coming 
of  the  English.  We  have  seen  what  glorious  achieve- 
ments Christianity  had  accomplished  in  the  century 
between  the  Coming  of  Augustine  and  the  Passing 
bf  Theodore.  Slowly  but  surely  it  had  won  from 
heathenism  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  Heptarchy.  Then 
we  see  the  Heptarchy,  slowly  but  surely,  also  becom- 
ing a  Triarchy — the  dominant  kingdoms  of  North- 
umbria,  Mercia,  and  Wessex  annexing  or  controlling 
the  other  kingdoms,  and  each  of  the  three  struggling 
for  the  mastery.  The  Overlordship  had  passed  from 
Kent  to  Northumbria,  from  Northumbria  to  Mercia, 
from  Mercia  to  Wessex,  where  it  was  to  remain  per- 
manently in  the  line  of  Egbert  until  the  Triarchy 
had  become  a  Monarchy,  and  the  English  peoples 
gradually  merged  into  one  nation.  The  process  by 
which  this  came  to  pass  was,  briefly,  as  follows: — 
Egbert  became  King  of  Wessex  in  802,  after  an  exile 
of  thirteen  years  spent  at  the  Court  of  Charlemagne, 

[168] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  DANES 

where  he  probably  saw  the  Imperial  crown  of  the 
Caesar's  placed  upon  the  head  of  Charles  the  Great 
by  Pope  Leo  III,  on  the  famous  Christmas-day  of  the 
year  800.  Here,  doubtless,  the  West  Saxon  King 
had  been  fired  with  the  ambition  to  become  sole 
sovereign  of  all  England.  In  about  thirty  years  he 
had  conquered  the  British  Kingdom  of  West  Wales, 
or  Cornwall  down  to  Land's  End;  had  followed  this 
up  by  his  victory  at  Ellandun  where  he  had  won 
the  Kingdom  of  Mercia.  Shortly  afterwards  Sussex 
and  Essex  submitted  to  his  sway,  and  then  Kent, 
where  Ethelwulf,  his  son,  father  of  Alfred,  was  made 
sub-king.  Egbert's  conquests  culminated  in  831, 
by  the  submission  of  Northumbria,  and  he  was 
acknowledged  as  supreme  over  all  the  kingdoms  of 
the  English,  so  that  this  date  is  sometimes  reckoned 
as  "the  birth-year  of  this  Monarchy."  It  should  be 
added,  however,  that  this  new-born  monarchy  in  the 
House  of  Egbert  of  Wessex  was  not  really  full- 
grown  until  the  reign  of  Athelstan  the  Glorious 
(924-941)  grandson  of  Alfred  the  Great,  who  was 
grandson  of  Egbert. 

And  what  was  the  cohesive  power,  the  centralizing 
and  unifying  power  behind  this  movement  for  the 
Making  of  one  English  Nation?  What  but  the  Mak- 
ing one  English  Church,  which  preceded  it  by  at 
least  150  years,  and  prepared  the  way  for  it,  setting 
the  example,  and  giving  the  inspiration  thereto?  It 
would  be  easy  enough  to  multiply  proofs  of  this 
statement  by  quoting  many  of  the  best  historians. 
Time  will  allow  me  to  quote  only  a  few,  and  I  select 

[169] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND 

those  whicli  we  use  in  our  Senior  Class,  In  his 
''History  of  the  English  Church  from  its  Foundation 
to  the  Norman  Conquest/*  Hunt  declares, — **In  this 
making  of  England,  the  Church  of  England  bore  a 
signal  part.  Amid  the  divisions  and  struggles  of  the 
Heptarchic  period,  the  Church  alone  represented  the 
idea  of  Unity.  It  was  the  Church  of  all  the  kingdoms, 
and  of  none  of  them  exclusively;  it  was  not  the 
Church  of  Kent,  or  of  Mercia,  or  of  Wessex,  but  of 
the  English  nation.  Each  kingdom  had  its  own  leg- 
islative assembly;  the  Church  alone  had  assemblies 
gathered  from  every  kingdom.  A  layman  of  one 
kingdom  was  a  stranger,  perhaps  an  enemy,  in  an- 
other; a  churchman  was  at  home  in  all.  Bishops 
were  not  necessarily  natives  of  the  kingdoms  in 
which  their  dioceses  lay.  .  .  .  Thus  the  Church  fore- 
shadowed and  set  an  example  of  a  unity  which  was 
gradually  attained  by  the  nation.'* 

Mr.  M.  W.  Patterson,  in  his  *' History  of  the 
Church  of  England,"  says,  ''The  Church  of  England 
is  not,  and  never  has  been,  a  State  Church.  She  ex- 
isted in  these  islands  long  before  there  was  a  united 
State  of  England.  She  drew  her  credentials  from 
our  Lord  Himself,  her  frame  of  government  from 
the  the  Apostolic  Church.  The  State  did  not  estab- 
lish the  Church;  it  would  be  more  true  to  say  that 
the  Church  established  the  State.*' 

Dr.  Alfred  Plummer,  in  his  "Churches  in  Britain 
before  A.  D.  1000,"  says,  "Theodore  created  a 
United  Church,  which  became  in  quite  a  marvellous 
degree  a  National  Church.  .  .  .  The  unity  of  the 

[170] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  DANES 

Church  became  the  foundation,  the  model,  and  the 
chief  cause  of  the  unity  of  the  nation.  ...  It  was 
the  English  Church  which  was  the  substitute  for  a 
United  Nation,  and  which  led  to  an  English  Nation 
being  at  last  formed.*' 

But,  I  must  pass  more  directly  to  the  special  sub- 
ject of  this  particular  lecture.  We  have  already 
seen  how  the  various  distinct  agencies  in  the  con- 
version of  the  English,  viz. :  Italian,  Keltic,  Burgun- 
dian  and  Frankish  had  been  welded  together  into 
one  National  Church,  with  provinces,  dioceses,  and 
the  beginning  of  parishes,  with  monasteries  and 
schools,  sjmods  and  conferences.  Amid  all  the  con- 
fusion and  strife  and  changes  in  the  kingdoms,  the 
Church  of  the  English  had  become  the  one  united 
and  stable  organization  to  set  the  example  and  lead 
the  way  to  English  National  Unity.  "It  could  weld 
together,''  says  Wakeman,  ''into  one  stable  fabric 
the  ill-assorted  elements  of  Roman  and  Keltic  Chris- 
tianity, keeping  and  utilizing  with  rare  skill  the  best 
of  both  systems.  It  could  take  the  lead  in  the  noble 
work  of  the  conversion  of  the  German  tribes  (on  the 
Continent)  of  similar  blood.  It  could  teach  English- 
men to  feel,  act,  and  think  as  members  of  one  society 
in  the  unity  of  the  Catholic  Church.  The  primary 
duty  now  before  the  Church  became  no  longer  to 
win  but  to  train,  no  longer  to  establish  but  to  de- 
velop, no  longer  to  call  for  great  sacrifices  and 
heroic  resolutions,  but  to  demand  the  steady,  painful, 
daily  building  up  of  character  through  the  replace- 

[171] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

ment  of  heathen  license  by  Christian  discipline.  In 
such  days  the  rough,  coarse,  passionate  nature  of 
our  old  English  forefathers  began  to  reassert  itself, 
and  the  barbarian  burst  through  the  web  of  civiliza- 
tion which  Christianity  had  woven  round  him." 

The  first  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  the  life  of  the 
English  Church  has  been  called  its  ''Golden  Age," 
because  then  it  appeared  as  its  best,  both  at  home 
and  abroad,  in  unitj^  of  organization  and  spirituality 
of  life,  in  its  leaders  of  learning  and  of  missionary 
zeal.  But  before  the  death  of  Bede  in  735,  whose 
unique  narrative  we  lose  now  for  the  rest  of  our  story, 
he  sees  signs  of  increasing  degeneracy  and  decay.  He 
writes  to  Egbert,  the  Archbishop  of  York,  deploring 
the  relapse  from  a  higher  standard,  and  urging  the 
crying  need  of  revival  and  vigorous  reforms.  Boni- 
face, too,  the  English  Winfrid  and  the  great  Apostle 
of  Germany,  writes  back  to  his  native  Church  in 
terms  of  severest  censure,  calling  for  a  council  to 
deal  promptly  and  sternly  with  the  moral  corrup- 
tion of  his  beloved  England.  Nor  did  the  English 
Alcuin,  the  famous  scholar  and  former  head  of  the 
school  at  York,  now  at  the  Court  of  Charlemagne, 
forget  to  write  many  letters  to  the  same  effect.  The 
monasteries,  intended  as  centres  of  learning,  dis- 
cipline and  missionary  zeal,  were,  in  some  cases,  be- 
coming the  homes  of  idleness  and  laxity,  of  luxury 
and  even  of  vice.  The  genuine,  if  mistaken,  devo- 
tion, which  had  led  kings,  queens  and  nobles  into 
these  calm  retreats  of  saintly  living,  had  come  to 
make  monastic  life  a  fashionable  fad  for  princes  and 

[172] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  DANES 

princesses  who  carried  their  worldly  ways  into  the 
religious  houses,  and  into  the  popular  pilgrimages 
to  Rome,  making  both  a  by-word  of  reproach.  Boni- 
face pictures  the  frivolity  and  bad  repute  of  English 
ladies  on  their  way  to  and  from  the  city  which  held 
the  tombs  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul ;  and  Pope  Zach- 
ary  demands  that  the  bishops  deal  promptly  with  the 
laxity  and  sin  of  clergy  and  people.  Accordingly 
the  provincial  Synod  of  Cloveshoo  in  747  legislated 
against  religious  ladies  that  used  skill  in  needle- 
work for  the  adornment  of  their  own  persons  rather 
than  of  God's  altars.  Pseudo-monasteries  must 
cease  to  be  places  of  gossip,  feasting  and  drinking, 
the  resorts  of  minstrels,  musicians  and  buffoons. 
Monks  must  no  longer  be  allowed  the  national  vice 
of  excessive  drinking,  especially  of  '' rising  up  early 
to  follow  strong  drink."  Other  canons  were  passed 
prescribing  greater  care  in  ordaining  fit  men  for  the 
sacred  ministry,  and  stricter  regulation  of  the  lives 
of  the  clergy,  regulars  and  seculars.  Worldly  em- 
ployments must  cease  on  the  Lord's  day,  the  people 
must  be  taught  the  Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer  and 
the  Ten  Commandments,  the  Services  for  Baptism 
and  Holy  Communion  in  their  own  tongue. 

Meanwhile  Theodore 's  policy  of  unity  of  organiza- 
tion under  one  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was  changed 
for  the  worse  by  the  creation  of  two  additional  arch- 
bishoprics, and  rivalry  which  arose  between  them.  In 
735  Egbert,  brother  of  the  Northumbrian  King,  was 
made  first  Archbishop  of  York,  and  a  most  worthy 
one  he  proved.    When  the  great  Mercian  King  Offa, 

[173] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  intimate  friend  of  Charlemagne,  became  over- 
lord, he  wished  to  consolidate  his  kingdom  and  to 
mark  its  supremacy  by  setting  up  its  own  Arch- 
bishopric at  Lichfield.  In  order  to  give  greater  pres- 
tige to  the  new  Metropolitan  See,  Offa  invited  the 
Pope  Hadrian  I.  to  erect  it,  which  he  did  by  sending 
two  Legates  to  hold  provincial  synods  in  England, 
and  at  one  of  these  at  Chelsea  in  787  Higbert,  Bishop 
of  Lichfield,  was  made  Archbishop  and  given  the 
larger  part  of  the  See  of  Canterbury.  Fortunately 
this  action  was  reversed  sixteen  years  later,  and  the 
new  Archbishopric  was  abolished.  The  national 
character  of  the  Church  and  its  influence  for  encour- 
aging national  unity  were  endangered  by  this  policy 
of  making  new  Metropolitan  Sees  as  appendages  to 
political  divisions.  Still  more  threatening  was  the 
introduction  into  England  for  the  first  time  of  Papal 
Legates,  although  we  hear  no  more  of  them  until 
the  eve  of  the  Norman  Conquest. 

Something  more  radical  and  arousing  than  the 
visit  of  papal  legates  was  needed  to  awaken  the 
English  Church  from  moral  and  spiritual  lethargy, 
and  we  are  now  to  hear  of  another  kind  of  visitors. 
The  awakening  came  by  the  sword  of  the  heathen, 
and  by  a  visitation  similar  to  that  which  came  to  the 
old  British  Church  when  the  heathen  English  burst 
upon  them  with  fire  and  sword.  From  across  the 
North  Sea  in  their  broad-bottomed  boats,  and  up  all 
the  bays  and  creeks  and  rivers  of  England,  began 
to  swarm  the  Vikings,  Norwegians,  Frisians  and 
Danes,  to  repeat  what  had  been  done  on  the  same 

[174] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  DANES 

soil  three  hundred  years  before  by  the  Angles,  the 
Saxons  and  the  Jutes.  Mr.  Green  gives  us  a  vivid 
picture  of  the  coming  of  the  Danes. — "The  first 
sight  of  the  Northmen  is  as  if  the  hand  on  the  dial 
of  history  had  gone  back  three  hundred  years.  The 
Norwegian  fiords,  the  Frisian  sandbanks,  poured 
forth  pirate  fleets  such  as  had  swept  the  seas  in  the 
days  of  Hengist  and  Cerdic.  There  was  the  same 
wild  panic  as  the  black  boats  of  the  invaders  struck 
inland  along  the  river  reaches,  or  moored  around 
the  river-islets, — the  same  sights  of  horror,  firing 
of  homesteads,  slaughter  of  men,  women  driven  off 
to  slavery  or  shame,  children  tossed  on  pikes  or  sold 
in  the  market-place,  as  when  the  English  invaders 
attacked  Britain.  Christian  priests  were  again  slain 
at  the  altar  by  worshippers  of  Woden;  letters,  arts, 
religion,  government  disappeared  before  these 
Northmen  as  before  the  Northmen  of  old.  But 
when  the  wild  burst  of  the  storm  was  over,  people, 
government  (Church)  reappeared  unchanged.  Eng- 
land still  remained  England;  the  conquerors  sank 
quietly  into  the  mass  of  those  around  them;  and 
Woden  yielded  without  struggle  to  Christ.  The 
secret  of  this  difference  between  the  two  invasions 
was  that  the  battle  was  no  longer  between  Briton 
and  German,  between  Englishman  and  Welshman, 
between  men  of  different  races.  The  life  of  these 
Northern  folk  was  in  the  main  the  life  of  the  earlier 
Englishmen.  Their  customs,  their  religion,  their 
social  order  were  the  same  as  our  English  fore- 
fathers had  been;  they  were  in  fact  kinsmen  bring- 

[175] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

ing  back  to  an  England  that  had  forgotten  its  ori- 
gins the  barbaric  England  of  its  pirate  forefathers. 
Nowhere  over  Europe  was  the  fight  so  fierce,  be- 
cause nowhere  else  were  the  combatants  men  of  one 
blood  and  one  speech.  But  just  for  this  reason  the 
fusion  of  the  Northmen  with  their  foes  was  nowhere 
so  peaceful  and  so  complete."  (''Short  History  of 
the  English  people.") 

The  first  appearance  on  English  shores  of  the 
coming  storm  from  the  North,  that  was  to  make  the 
whole  heavens  black  with  clouds  and  wind,  was  as 
''the  arising  of  a  little  cloud  out  of  the  sea  like  a 
man's  hand."  The  "Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle," 
which,  now  that  we  have  lost  Bede,  becomes  our 
chief  source  of  information,  records  for  the  year 
787 :  ' '  This  year  first  came  three  ships  of  Northmen 
out  of  Haerethaland  (Denmark) — These  were  the 
first  ships  of  Danishmen  which  sought  the  land  of 
the  English  nation."  The  next  notice  of  the 
"Chronicle"  is  more  ominous,  and  more  rhetorical: 
— "793,  this  year  dire  fore-warnings  came  over  the 
land  of  the  Northumbrians,  and  miserably  terrified 
the  people;  these  were  excessive  whirlwinds  and 
lightnings;  and  fiery  dragons  (probably  Zeppelins 
or  aeroplanes?)  were  seen  flying  in  the  air.  .  .  . 
A  little  after  that,  in  the  same  year,  the  ravaging  of 
heathen  men  lamentably  destroyed  God's  church  at 
Lindisfarne  through  rapine  and  slaughter."  Again, 
the  record  for  794  says:  "And  the  heathens  ravaged 
among  the  Northumbrians,  and  plundered  Egfert's 
monastery  at  the  mouth  of  the  Wear"  (Bede's  old 

[176] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  DANES 

neighborhood).  These  are  fair  samples  of  what  fol- 
lowed for  two  hundred  years,  during  which,  more 
and  more,  far  and  wide,  ''the  ravages  of  heathen 
men  lamentably  destroyed  God's  Church"  until 
there  was  not  a  monastery  and  hardly  a  church  left 
standing  in  Northumbria.  The  same  story  is  re- 
peated in  the  other  kingdoms.  The  Chronicle  does 
not  mention  the  Northmen  again  till  832,  when  we 
read:  ''This  year  the  heathen  men  ravaged  Shep- 
pey,"  (an  island  olff  the  coast  of  Kent — they  are 
moving  Southward  now).  Meanwhile  they  have 
spread  themselves  over  the  islands  off  the  North 
and  West  coasts  of  Scotland,  destroying  Columba's 
famous  monastery  in  802,  and  later  overrunning  the 
great  part  of  Ireland.  After  the  year  832  they  came 
every  year  for  twenty  years  to  England,  each  time  ap- 
pearing suddenly,  and  usually  in  a  fresh  place. 
They  made  straight  for  the  Church  or  the  monas- 
tery, where  gold  and  silver  and  other  treasures  sat- 
isfied their  lust  of  plunder,  and  fire  and  sword  satis- 
fied their  fanatical  hatred  of  Christianity.  They 
regarded  their  English  kinsmen  as  apostates  from 
the  old  religion  of  the  Teutons  (what  the  Kaiser 
calls,  "our  old  God").  They  had  a  special  antipathy 
to  the  Christian  religion  which  was  ousting  their 
own.  Besides  the  churches  and  monasteries,  the  few 
English  cities,  Canterbury,  Rochester,  Winchester, 
London  and  York  were  well-nigh  destroyed.  And 
so  the  terrible  work  of  the  Danes  went  on  through- 
out the  fair  fields  of  England  until  "the  land  which 
was  as  the  Garden  of  Eden  before  them,  behind  them 

[177] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

was  a  desolate  wilderness."  From  the  middle  of  the 
ninth  century  it  was  no  longer  a  mere  succession  of 
raids  for  plunder  and  slaughter,  but  a  steady  invas- 
ion from  all  sides  for  conquest  and  settlement,  with 
formidable  armies  and  vast  fleets  and  great  kings  at 
the  head  of  them.  The  Danes  had  come  to  stay 
and  to  supplant  the  English.  The  pressure  of  the 
increased  population  driven  in  upon  their  countries 
by  Charlemagne  compelled  them  to  seek  a  new  home, 
and  they  found  one  much  to  their  liking  during  their 
frequent  visits  to  England.  It  was  a  delightful  con- 
trast to  the  bleak  and  barren  and  frigid  regions 
from  which  they  came.  Soon  Northumbria  and  East 
Anglia  were  theirs  beyond  recovery,  then  Mercia 
was  overwhelmed,  giving  them  two-thirds  of  England. 
Not  until  they  attempted  the  conquest  of  Wessex  did 
they  encounter  a  f  oeman  equal  to  the  task  of  turning 
the  tide.  Before  this  the  English  here  and  there, 
and  especially  in  Wessex  under  Egbert  and  his  son, 
Ethelwulf,  had  made  a  brave  but  spasmodic  and 
ineffectual  resistance.  They  had  ceased  to  be  a 
warlike  people,  and  were  ill  prepared  for  defense 
against  a  foreign  foe.  They  had  no  organized  army, 
no  navy  at  all.  Kings  and  thegns,  bishops  and 
abbots,  at  the  head  of  such  forces  as  they  could  hast- 
ily gather,  had  fought  and  died  for  their  homes  and 
their  altars,  their  families  and  their  country.  King 
Edmund  of  East  Anglia  had  won  the  martyr's  crown 
by  a  death  like  that  of  St.  Sebastian,  tied  to  a  tree 
and  shot  through  and  through  with  arrows,  because 

[178] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  DANES 

he  would  not  renounce  his  religion  to  save  his  throne 
or  his  life. 

But  at  last  God  raised  up  in  Alfred  of  Wessex  a 
peerless  leader  to  shed  an  imperishable  glory  over 
the  English  race. 

Alfred,  youngest  son  of  King  Ethelwulf  and  his 
Queen  Osburh,  was  born  at  Wantage  in  Berkshire 
in  848.  His  father,  who  had  long  desired  to  make 
a  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  gave  this  little  son  a  pictur- 
esque start  towards  greatness  and  royalty  by  send- 
ing him  at  the  age  of  four  in  the  company  of  other 
nobles  to  Rome,  as  the  advance  guard  to  announce 
the  King's  own  coming  two  years  later.  Pope  Leo 
IV.  was  so  delighted  with  the  attractive  child  that 
he  adopted  him  as  a  son,  anointed  him  with  oil,  and 
placed  a  crown  upon  his  head.  His  father's  visit 
to  Rome  lasted  a  whole  year,  in  which  the  King  lav- 
ished most  costly  gifts  upon  the  Pope  and  prom- 
ised a  yearly  offering  —  the  forerunner  of  "Peter's 
Pence. ' '  On  his  way  home  Ethelwulf  visited  the  Em- 
peror Charles  the  Bald,  where  he  sealed  his  friend- 
ship with  the  Frankish  Count,  and  also  sealed  his 
fate  at  home,  and  spoiled  the  dignity  of  both  visits 
abroad,  by  taking  for  his  second  wife  Charles's 
daughter,  Edith,  aged  twelve.  Charles,  with  an  eye 
to  business  rather  than  romance,  had  his  daughter 
crowned  queen  by  the  famous  Archbishop  Hincmar. 
On  the  King's  return  to  Wessex  with  his  juvenile 
queen,  the  Witan  and  the  people  were  so  indignant 
at  his  folly  that  they  "sent  him  in  his  resignation," 
and  put  his  own  son  Ethelbald  on  the  throne.     On 

[179] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

his  father's  death  two  years  later  Ethelbald  made 
the  scandal  complete  by  marrying  his  father's 
widow.  Two  years  afterwards  Edith,  on  the  death 
of  her  second  husband,  married  her  third,  Baldwin, 
Count  of  Flanders,  and  became  thereby  the  ances- 
tress of  Matilda,  wife  of  William  the  Conqueror — 
whom  we  shall  meet  shortly  on  English  soil  repeat- 
ing the  performance  of  the  Danes.  Ethelwulf  had 
left  four  sons,  each  of  whom  had  succeeded  in  turn 
to  the  throne.  Two  died  very  early,  leaving  Ethel- 
red  as  King  when  the  Danes  closed  in  upon  Wessex 
and  penetrated  to  the  very  heart  of  it,  to  finish  the 
conquest  of  England.  Ethelred,  aided  by  his  young- 
est brother  Alfred,  made  a  brave  resistance  with 
the  balance  of  success  against  him,  but  managed  to 
hold  their  enemies  in  check  for  a  while.  After 
Ethelred 's  death,  Alfred  now  King  at  twenty-two 
years  of  age,  led  a  forlorn  hope  with  all  odds  against 
him.  During  seven  years  of  ceaseless  conflict,  his 
resources  seemed  about  exhausted,  and  it  looked 
as  if  England  and  the  English  Church  would  soon 
share  the  fate  of  Britain  and  the  British  Church. 
During  the  winter  of  877-8  Wessex  was  in  its  last 
ditch,  and  the  young  man  who  carried  its  fortunes 
and  all  England 's  in  his  hands  was  shut  up  in  a  rude 
fort  in  the  isle  of  Athelney,  amid  the  marshes  of  the 
river  Parret,  in  worse  plight  than  Washington  at 
Valley  Forge.  But,  with  the  budding  of  Spring- 
time, the  fairest  flower  of  all  English  manhood 
began  to  bloom,  and  a  career  opened  before  the 
world  which  has  had  no  counterpart  in  English  his- 

[180] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  DANES 

tory  until  our  own  Washington.  There  was  hope 
yet  for  a  ruined  country  and  church  which  could 
produce  Alfred  the  Great  and  the  Good,  who,  how- 
ever, was  called  by  his  English  contemporaries,  "Eng- 
land's Darling."  This  was  England's  compensation 
for  the  ravages  of  the  heathen  who  "lamentably  des- 
troyed God's  Church." 

The  stories  of  the  "cakes"  and  the  "harper's  dis- 
guise" tell  us  only  of  the  occasional  diversions  of 
Alfred  during  his  hiding  in  the  marshland.  There 
was  more  serious  work  going  on  in  that  fertile  brain, 
which  was  to  bring  forth  abundant  fruit  in  the 
Revival  of  English  State  and  Church.  The  organ- 
izing of  an  army,  and  even  the  beginning  of  a  navy 
—  of  England's  great  sea-power  —  were  the  most 
immediate  results  of  the  meditations  that  made  the 
King-in-disguise  forget  to  turn  the  cakes.  He  was 
getting  ready  to  turn  the  tables  on  the  Danes.  And 
soon  the  old  "Chronicle"  begins  to  change  its  mon- 
otonous and  melancholy  tone  for  the  year  878: 
"Then  in  the  seventh  week  after  Easter  the  King 
rode  to  Brixton  on  the  east  side  of  Selwood;  and 
there  came  to  meet  him  all  the  men  of  Somerset,  and 
the  men  of  Wiltshire,  and  that  part  of  the  men  of 
Hampshire  which  were  on  this  side  of  the  sea;  and 
they  were  joyful  at  his  presence.  On  the  following 
day  he  went  from  that  station  to  Iglea,  and  on  the 
day  after  this  to  Heddington,  and  there  fought 
against  the  w^hole  army,  put  them  to  flight,  and  per- 
sued  them  as  far  as  their  fortress;  and  there  he  sat 
down  fourteen  days.  And  then  their  army  delivered 
[181] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

to  him  hostages,  with  many  oaths  that  they  would 
leave  his  kingdom,  and  also  promised  him  that  their 
King  should  receive  baptism;  and  this  accordingly 
they  fulfilled."  This  is  the  ''Anglo-Saxon  Chroni- 
cle's" simple  narrative  of  one  of  the  Decisive 
Battles  of  the  World  at  Ethandun,  or  Eddington, 
and  the  Peace  of  Wedmore,  followed  by  the  Baptism 
of  Gu thrum,  or  Gorm,  the  Danish  King,  with  King 
Alfred  for  his  sponsor.  The  after-results  were  the 
Revival  and  restoration  of  the  English  Nation  and 
Church.  It  was  the  beginning,  too,  of  the  Conver- 
sion and  the  Civilization  of  the  Danes,  and  of  their 
peaceful  amalgamation  with  the  English  race — to 
the  ultimate  advantage  of  both  parties. 

By  the  Peace  of  Wedmore  about  one  half  of  Eng- 
land, already  in  secure  possession  of  the  Danes,  was 
conceded  to  them,  on  condition  that  they  left  the 
rest  undisturbed.  The  dividing  line  was  the  River 
Thames  up  to  London,  and  thence  by  the  old  ''Wat- 
ling  Street"  road  to  Chester  and  the  Irish  Sea. 
Thus  the  Danes  got  Northumbria,  East  Anglia,  and 
the  eastern  half  of  Mercia.  Guthrum,  the  Danish 
King,  formally  accepted  the  Christian  religion,  and 
pledged  himself  to  keep  the  peace  and  to  cease 
raiding  and  plundering.  No  better  terms  were 
possible.  It  was  too  late  to  turn  the  Danes  out  of 
the  whole  of  England.  The  next  best  thing  was  to 
keep  them  out  of  half  of  it,  and  confine  them  within 
that  part  which  now  took  the  name  of  the  Danelaw. 
Here  time  and  the  influence  of  the  English  among 
whom  they  dwelt,  the  influence  of  a  higher  civiliza- 

[182] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  DANES 

tion  and  purer  religion  might  be  trusted  to  make  the 
Danes  what  the  English  themselves  had  gradually 
become. 

And  so  Alfred  turned  his  attention  to  the  Regen- 
eration of  his  own  kingdom.  Ten  years  of  peace 
were  before  him,  and  he  made  the  most  of  them — 
fifteen  years,  indeed,  with  the  exception  of  one 
short,  successful  struggle.  **This  will  I  say,'*  he 
declared,  'Hhat  I  have  sought  to  live  worthily  the 
while  I  lived,  and  after  my  life  to  leave  to  the  men 
that  came  after  me  a  remembering  of  me  in  good 
works.''  No  nobler  aim  for  a  man's  life  was  ever 
more  worthily  fulfilled.  War  with  the  Danes  was 
not  by  any  means  over  yet,  and  he  took  wise  meas- 
ures to  meet  the  enemy  prepared  the  next  time,  by 
sea  as  well  as  land.  But  good  fighter  as  the  King 
was,  his  achievements  in  peace  were  greater  far  than 
his  deeds  as  a  warrior.  The  breathing  spell  now 
allowed  his  kingdom  was  turned  to  the  best  account 
in  the  Restoration  of  law  and  order  and  good  govern- 
ment— of  education  and  sound  learning,  and  most 
of  all,  of  religion,  which  he  made  the  base  of  all. 
"Whether  w^e  regard  his  laws,  his  police,  his  redivi- 
sions  of  population,  his  reconstituted  assemblies,  his 
creation  of  a  navy,  his  management  of  the  church, 
his  education  of  the  clergy,  of  the  upper  classes,  and 
of  the  poor,  the  record  is  amazing."  (Burrows.) 
In  each  of  these  departments  of  reform  Alfred  ap- 
pears, not  as  an  original  creative  genius,  but  rather 
as  a  man  of  practical  common  sense,  who  took  the 
best  that  was  readiest  to  his  hand,  and  adapted  it 

[183] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

to  the  immediate  needs  of  his  people.  He  codified 
the  Laws  of  his  predecessors,  selecting  the  most 
righteous  and  the  most  workable,  and  made  them  a 
national  law  for  what  was  left  of  England.  * '  Those 
things,"  he  says,  ''which  I  met  with,  either  of  the 
days  of  Ine,  my  kinsman,  or  of  Offa,  King  of  the 
Mercians,  or  of  Ethelbert,  who  first  among  the  Eng- 
lish race  received  baptism,  those  which  seemed  to 
me  rightest,  those  I  have  gathered,  and  rejected  the 
others."  And  few  men  have  been  better  judges  of 
the  "rightest"  all  around.  Alfred's  code  opens 
with  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  sums  them  up 
with  the  Golden  Rule.  These  were  the  basis  of  his 
laws,  as  of  his  own  life. 

If  Alfred's  Laws  did  more  for  England  than  his 
wars,  greater  still  and  more  lasting  were  his  services 
in  behalf  of  Education  and  of  Literature.  He  found 
virtually  nothing  left  of  either  of  these  in  his  own 
kingdom.  With  the  destruction  of  the  monasteries, 
went  teachers,  schools  and  books.  As  he  declares, 
' '  So  entirely  has  knowledge  escaped  from  the  English 
people  that  there  are  only  a  few  priests  on  this  side 
of  the  Humber  who  can  understand  the  Divine  Ser- 
vice, or  even  explain  a  Latin  Epistle  in  English 

I  cannot  remember  one  south  of  the  Thames  when  I 
began  to  reign."  And  so,  in  his  unsettled  times  he 
set  himself  to  provide  that  "at  least  every  freeborn 
youth  should  abide  at  his  book  till  he  can  well  under- 
stand English  writing. ' '  But  the  sword  of  the  Danes 
had  left  few  competent  teachers  in  England,  which 
had  taken  the  lead  heretofore.    How  was  this  lack  to 

[184] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  DANES 

be  supplied?  '^ Formerly,"  writes  Alfred,  **men 
came  hither  from  foreign  lands  to  seek  for  instruc- 
tion, and  now,  when  we  desire  it,  we  can  only  ob- 
tain it  from  abroad."  And  so  from  Wales  and 
Western  Mercia,  which  had  suffered  less  from  the 
invaders,  and  then  from  Continental  Europe  the 
King  summoned  learned  teachers  for  the  new  schools 
and  monasteries  which  he  founded — among  them 
Asser,  a  British  monk  from  St.  David's,  who  became 
the  King's  intimate  friend  and  adviser,  and  later 
his  biographer  when  he  had  settled  down  as  bishop 
of  Sherborne.  Plegmund,  a  hermit,  in  hiding  from 
the  Danes  on  a  lonely  island  near  Chester,  was 
brought  forth  from  obscurity  to  become  ultimately 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  for  twenty-four  years, 
and  so  popular  that  the  '^ Chronicle"  for  the  year 
890,  says,  "he  was  chosen  of  God  and  all  the  people 
to  be  Archbishop  of  Canterbury."  Besides  these 
two  eminent  finds  from  ''out  West,"  from  the 
remoter  regions  of  Mercia,  came  also  Werfrith, 
Bishop  of  Worcester,  and  Athelstan  and  Werwulf, 
the  King's  chaplains.  Two  foreigners,  at  least, 
were  imported  from  the  Continent;  Grimbald  from 
St.  Omer  in  Flanders  and  John  of  Old  Saxony. 

But  at  the  head  of  all  England's  teachers  in  his 
day,  so  far  as  permanent  influence  upon  education 
and  letters  is  concerned,  stands  Alfred  himself, — 
first  a  learner  in  his  court-school  (like  Charlemagne 
in  the  similar  school  for  nobles  under  the  English 
Alcuin),  devoting  eight  hours  of  every  twenty-four 
to  study,  until  the  royal  learner  became  competent, 

[185] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

by  the  aid  of  his  more  learned  colleagues,  to  do  for 
Literature  what  he  had  done  for  Laws.  Alfred 
took  the  best  manuals  of  his  time  within  his  reach 
(which  in  those  days  were  all  in  Latin),  and  ren- 
dered them  into  English.  These  he  carefully  edited, 
and  sometimes  enriched  by  his  own  wise  and,  often 
charming,  prefaces  and  notes — which  make  the  be- 
ginning of  English  Prose.  On  this  wise  he  dealt 
with  five  famous  books,  which  were  translated  out 
of  Latin  into  English — which  meant  then  Anglo- 
Saxon — as  follows : — 

I.  The  Liber  Pastoralis,  or  *' Pastoral  Care"  of  Pope 
Gregory  the  Great  translated  by  Alfred  himself, 
who  sent  a  copy  to  every  English  bishop.  Three 
copies  still  survive. 

n.  Bede's  ''Ecclesiastical  History,"  still  surviv- 
ing in  Anglo-Saxon. 

ni.  Orosius's  ** History  Against  the  Pagans,"  by 
a  Spanish  priest,  a  contemporary  and  friend  of  St. 
Augustine  c.417,  and,  like  the  great  bishop's  book 
''The  City  of  God,"  a  Christian  Apologetic. 

IV.  "Dialogues  of  Gregory  the  Great" — popular 
narratives  in  aid  of  personal  religion. 

V.  Boethius's  "Consolations  of  Philosophy," 
written  by  Boethius,  a  Roman  Consul,  imprisoned 
and  put  to  death  c.524  by  Theoderic,  King  of  the 
East  Goths — Moral  Meditations  based  principally 
on  Plato  and  Aristotle — not  particularly  Christian 
in  the  original,  but  made  so  by  Alfred  in  his  trans- 
lations, which  emphasize  the  superior  consolations 
of  the  Christian  Religion.    "In  all  these  works,"  it 

[186] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  DANES 

has  been  well  said  by  Mr.  Cruttwell  (in  his  book 
called,  **The  Saxon  Church  and  the  Norman  Con- 
quest") ''Alfred  throws  off  the  King  and  speaks 
to  the  reader  as  man  to  man.  But  a  still  more  strik- 
ing proof  of  his  genius  is  shown  by  his  remodelling 
of  the  old  'Chronicle'  (from  which  I  have  fre- 
quently quoted),  which  in  his  hands  and  for  some 
time  after  him  (down  to  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury), became  the  most  authentic  source  of  English 
history.  A  bare  annalistic  record  of  public  events 
had  existed  in  Wessex  from  the  time  of  Birinus  till 
the  death  of  Ine,  written  in  Latin  and  known  as 
the  Bishop's  Roll.  This  had  been  revived  under 
Egbert,  and  considerably  amplified  by  St.  Swithun, 
bishop  of  Winchester,  who  gathered  together  many 
early  traditions  as  well  as  materials  for  the  history 
of  his  own  time.  It  was  this  Roll  that  now  blossomed 
out  into  a  spirited  original  narrative,  which  gave 
a  wholly  new  power  to  the  English  tongue.  There 
can  be  little  doubt  that  a  large  part  of  the  Chronicle 
for  Alfred's  reign  was  written  by  himself.  The  im- 
pulse he  thus  gave  bore  fruit  rapidly.  Not  only  was 
the  Chronicle  continued  after  his  death,  but  an  out- 
burst of  literary  productiveness  in  the  vernacular 
ensued,  wholly  without  parallel  among  Continental 
nations,  bearing  witness  to  the  inspiring  power  of 
the  King's  example." 

At  the  risk  of  wearying  you,  I  cannot  forbear  to 
add  Mr.  Green's  statement  of  this  in  his  remarka- 
ble book  on  "The  Conquest  of  England": — 

"It   is   thus   that    in   the    Literatures   of   Modem 

[187] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Europe  that  of  England  leads  the  way.  The  Rom- 
ance tongues — the  tongues  of  Italy,  France  and 
Spain — were  only  just  emerging  into  definite  exis- 
tence when  Alfred  wrote None  of  the  Ger- 
man folk  across  the  sea  were  to  possess  a  prose  liter- 
ature of  their  own  for  centuries  to  come.  English, 
therefore,  was  not  only  the  first  Teutonic  Literature 
— it  was  the  earliest  prose  literature  of  the  modern 
world.  And  at  the  outset  of  English  literature 
stands  the  figure  of  Alfred.  The  mighty  roll  of 
books  that  fills  our  libraries  opens  with  the  transla- 
tions of  the  King." 

But  the  Revival  of  a  ruined  Church  and  of  a  well- 
nigh  ruined  Religion  was  one  of  the  best  of  all 
Alfred's  achievements,  and  indeed  the  basis  of  all 
his  reforms.  He  was  a  King  who  sought  first  the 
Kingdom  and  Righteousness  of  God  for  himself  and 
for  his  people.  Among  clergy  and  laity  alike  the  up- 
heaval caused  by  the  Danish  invasion  had  wrought  a 
terrible  deterioration  in  discipline  and  in  character. 
The  meagre  notices  of  Church  affairs  during  these 
troublous  times  do  not  furnish  much  material  for 
the  ecclesiastical  historian,  but  they  show  one  shin- 
ing mark  in  Alfred  as  a  Church-Reformer — ''build- 
ing the  old  wastes  and  repairing  the  breaches." 

In  addition  to  his  Code  of  laws  for  his  own  people, 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  were  intensely  religious, — 
as  Over-lord  of  Guthrum  the  Danish  King  settled  in 
East  Anglia,  Alfred  prepared  a  special  code  for 
these  Danish  converts  to  Christianity.  There  would 
be  an  immense  work  for  the  English  Church  for 

[188] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  DANES 

many  a  year  in  the  Christianizing  of  this  vast 
heathen  horde  who  had  now  become  a  permanent 
part  of  the  population.  There  would  be  need  of 
strenuous  restraints  upon  this  fierce  and  violent 
race  who  had  been  nurtured  in  a  savage  paganism. 
England,  for  the  while,  need  not  go  to  foreign  parts 
to  convert  the  heathen.  The  home-supply  would 
be  sufficient  to  occupy  the  missionaries  for  a  while. 
Alfred  had  to  reconvert  his  own  people  in  order  that 
they  might  help  in  the  conversion  of  the  Danes.  We 
find  him  taking  prompt  and  vigorous  measures  to 
replace  the  ruined  monasteries.  He  founded  three 
himself — one  for  women  at  Shaftesbury,  with  his 
own  daughter  Ethelgifj^  as  Abbess, — and  two  for 
men,  one  at  Winchester,  and  another  at  Athelney  in 
memory  of  his  awful  winter  there  and  the  glad 
springtime  that  brought  deliverance.  But  one  of  his 
most  difficult  tasks  was  to  find  Clergy  of  any  educa- 
tion for  bishops,  or  abbots,  or  even  parish  priests. 
Many  had  fallen  under  the  sword  of  the  Danes,  and 
many  had  fallen  from  grace.  Alfred  did  the  best  he 
could  until  his  schools  could  furnish  an  educated  and 
godly  ministry.  Many  sees  must  remain  vacant  until 
competent  men  could  be  provided.  But  so  fruitful 
was  the  stimulus  which  the  King  gave  to  education 
and  learning  and  religion  that  a  few  years  after  his 
death  no  less  than  seven  bishops  were  consecrated 
in  one  year  (909).  But,  after  all,  the  King's  greatest 
contribution  to  a  revived  church  was  his  own  per- 
sonality, the  example  and  influence  of  his  own  full- 
orbed  Christian  character.     "We  have  loved,"  he 

[189] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

said,  ''only  the  name  of  being  Christians,  and  very 
few  our  duties.^ ^  Alfred  was  the  foremost  of  that 
few  in  his  day  and  country  who  both  lived  and  did 
his  Christian  duty  to  God  and  to  man.  His  most 
conspicuous  quality  was  his  absolute  and  unselfish 
devotion  to  the  service  of  his  Lord  and  of  his  beloved 
people.  Like  David,  *'he  fed  them  with  a  faithful 
and  true  heart,  and  ruled  them  prudently  with  all 
his  power." — King  Alfred,  never  of  robust  health, 
died  at  the  early  age  of  fifty-two — ' '  one  of  the  great- 
est figures  in  the  history  of  the  World,"  says  von 
Ranke.  The  general  consensus  of  the  best  histori- 
ans as  to  his  character  finds  fit  expression  in  the 
words  of  Freeman,  ''Alfred  is  the  most  perfect  char- 
acter in  history.  .  .  .  No  other  man  on  record  has 
ever  so  thoroughly  united  all  the  virtues  both  of  the 
ruler  and  of  the  private  man.  In  no  other  man  on 
record  were  so  many  virtues  disfigured  by  so  little 
alloy.  A  saint  without  superstition,  a  scholar  with- 
out ostentation,  a  warrior  all  whose  wars  were 
fought  in  the  defense  of  his  country,  a  conqueror 
whose  laurels  were  never  stained  by  cruelty,  a  prince 
never  cast  down  by  adversity,  never  lifted  up  to  in- 
solence in  the  hour  of  triumph;  there  is  no  other 
name  in  history  to  compare  with  his.  .  .  .  The  vir- 
tue of  Alfred,  like  the  virtue  of  Washington,  con- 
sisted in  no  marvellous  displays  of  superhuman 
genius,  but  in  the  simple,  straightforward  discharge 
of  the  duty  of  the  moment.  But  Washington, 
soldier,  statesman  and  patriot,  like  Alfred,  has  no 
claim  to  Alfred's  character  of  scholar  and  master 

[190] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  DANES 

of   scholars."      (Freeman's   "Norman   Conquest," 
Vol.  I.  pp.  49-53). 

For  the  remainder  of  this  Lecture  I  will  give  you 
some  account  of  two  great  figures  that  stand  out  most 
conspicuously  in  the  English  Church  and  State  dur- 
ing the  Danish  troubles  that  followed  the  reign  of 
King  Alfred.  These  are  the  figures  of  Dunstan, 
the  first  great  Ecclesiastical  Statesman  in  England, 
and  Cnut,  England's  great  Danish  King.  Dunstan 
was  born  near  Glastonbury  about  924.  He  was  of 
noble  family,  a  nephew  of  Alfeah,  bishop  of  Win- 
chester, and  probably  related  to  the  royal  family, 
with  which  he  was  most  intimately  associated.  He 
w^as  a  very  precocious  boy,  and  soon  acquired  all  the 
learning  that  he  could  get  then  in  England.  His 
ardent  devotion  to  study  brought  on  brain  fever, 
which  affected  his  nervous  system  and  imaginative 
temperament,  and  made  him  at  times  the  victim  of 
fantastic  visions.  He  early  developed  remarkable 
artistic  talents  in  music,  painting,  and  metal  work, 
and  such  rare  skill  in  mechanics  as  gave  him  the 
reputation  of  a  magician.  In  early  youth,  at  the 
court  of  Athelstan,  grandson  of  Alfred,  Dunstan 's 
beauty  and  accomplishments  made  him  a  great  fav- 
orite in  the  ladies'  bower,  but  excited  the  hostility 
and  persecution  of  his  rude  and  ignorant  rivals. 
Their  rough  usage — they  threw  him  once  into  the 
horse-pond — brought  on  a  severe  attack  of  brain- 
fever,  which  drove  him  from  court,  and  changed  the 
current  of  his  life.  He  built  himself  a  hermit's  cell, 
whither  he  retired  from  the  world,  and  gave  him- 

[191] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

self  up  to  study  and  prayer — diverting  himself  some- 
times by  his  fondness  for  working  in  metals. 

Here,  like  St.  Anthony  and  Martin  Luther,  he 
fought  the  devils  of  temptation  in  realistic  fashion. 

St.  Dunsban,  as  the  story  goes, 
Caught  the  devil  by  the  nose." 

The  story  is  that  once  in  his  disordered  fancy,  as 
he  toiled  at  his  forge,  he  seized  the  foul  fiend  by 
the  nose  with  his  red-hot  tongs.  But  Dunstan  was 
not  long  allowed  his  ascetic  solitude.  If  he  would  be  a 
monk,  the  new  King  Edmand  would  have  him  master 
of  his  new  trade,  and  made  him  Abbot  of  Glastonbury 
at  the  age  of  twenty-two.  Here  he  began  his 
career  as  a  reformer  of  the  monastic  life,  rebuilding 
the  old  monastery  on  a  large  scale  with  his  private 
wealth,  setting  his  own  house  in  order,  and  making 
it  a  model  to  other  monasteries  as  a  religious  centre 
and  also  a  school  of  higher  learning.  At  the  same 
time  Dunstan  began  his  other  new  career  as  a  States- 
man, becoming  Treasurer  of  the  Kingdom  and 
Adviser  to  the  King.  During  the  succeeding  reign, 
under  the  youthful  and  delicate  Edred,  the  chief 
power  of  the  Kingdom  fell  into  Dunstan 's  hands. 
But  his  bold  and  high-handed  action  at  the  Corona- 
tion of  the  boy,  Edwy,  cost  him  his  place  at  Court. 
This  youth  was  so  infatuated  with  his  kinswoman, 
Elgivy,  whom  the  Church  forbade  him  to  marry, 
that  he  rudely  left  the  banquet  with  his  lords  and 
counsellors  for  Elgivy 's  charming  society,  and  Dun- 
stan brought  him  back    forcibly    to    his    insulted 

[192] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  DANES 

guests.  Shortly  afterward  Dunstan  was  outlawed, 
and  fled  to  Flanders.  While  at  Ghent  he  spent  his 
time  in  studying  the  Benedictine  Monastic  system, 
which  he  subsequently^  helped  Archbishop  Odo  to 
introduce  into  England.  A  revolt  against  Edwy's 
rule  gave  his  brother  part  of  the  Kingdom,  and 
then  Edwy's  death  made  Edgar  sole  sovereign  of 
all  England.  Dunstan  was  recalled,  made  bishop 
of  Worcester,  then  of  London,  and  finally  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  in  960,  and  virtually  Prime 
Minister  to  the  King.  From  this  time  on  Dunstan 
played  the  double  role  of  Church  Eeformer  and  the 
foremost  Statesman  in  England.  History  has  only 
recently  begun  to  do  Dunstan  justice.  Out  of  the 
mass  of  monkish  legends  on  the  one  side,  and  ignor- 
ant prejudice  on  the  other,  the  real  man  has  slowly 
emerged,  and  is  now  seen  to  be  very  much  of  a  man. 
Instead  of  the  blind  and  bigoted  ecclesiastic  which 
he  has  been  represented  to  be,  he  is  revealed  as  a 
far-seeing  statesman,  and  an  earnest  but  moderate 
ecclesiastic — pursuing  a  definite,  but  pacific  policy 
in  each  capacity,  and  doing  much  to  give  to  his  King 
the  name  of  ''Edgar  the  Peaceful."  It  was  clearly 
Dunstan 's  policy  to  push  forward  resolutely  the 
Church  Revival  of  King  Alfred  and  his  successors, 
to  raise  the  standard  of  discipline,  of  moral  and  relig- 
ious life  among  the  clergy,  both  regulars  and  secu- 
lars,— and  at  the  same  time  to  consolidate  the  West 
Saxon  Kingdom  and  supremacy  into  one  strong 
English  nationality,  which  should  absorb  and  assim- 
ilate all  the  diverse  elements,  especially  the  resident 

[193] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Danish  population  which  was  fast  becoming  Eng- 
lished, civilized  and  Christianized.  **He  employed 
Danes,"  we  are  told,  "in  the  royal  service,  and  pro- 
moted them  to  high  posts  in  Church  and  State." 
The  wisdom  of  this  statesmanlike  policy  was  fully 
justified  by  the  results. 

The  English  Monasteries  had  never  had  a  common 
effective  organization  under  one  central  authority, 
such  as  generally  prevailed  in  Western  Christendom. 
Their  isolation  and  independence  had  tended  to 
looseness  of  discipline  and  of  life.  The  demoraliza- 
tion of  the  Danish  invasion  had  wrecked  the  whole 
system,  such  as  it  was.  Alfred  had  made  a  begin- 
ning of  restoration  and  reform,  but  it  needed  to  be 
pushed  forward.  This  was  undertaken  by  Odo, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  with  a  strong  hand  and 
a  resolute  will,  but  he  encountered  a  desperate  resis- 
tance. There  had  been  a  long  and  bitter  struggle 
between  the  two  classes  of  clergy — regulars  and 
seculars,  or  the  monks  and  the  parochial  clergy — 
which  had  nearly  rent  in  twain  the  slowly  reviving 
English  Church.  Archbishop  Odo  was  a  Dane  and  a 
Benedictine  Monk.  He  had  accompanied  his  King 
Athelstan,  too,  in  his  military  campaigns,  culminat- 
ing in  the  great  victory  of  Brunaburgh.  He  had  been 
soldier  enough  to  carry  his  stern  military  methods 
into  the  Church,  enforcing  the  Benedictine  regula- 
tions upon  all  the  monasteries,  and  clerical  celibacy 
upon  all  clergy  alike.  Dunstan,  his  successor,  was  as 
earnest  an  advocate  as  Odo  of  the  reformed  Bene- 
dictine system.    He  believed,  too,  in  priestly  celibacy 

[194] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  DANES 

as  the  ideal  for  the  clergy,  but  the  Statesman  did 
not  undertake  to  force  it  upon  all  indiscriminately 
like  the  old  soldier.  He  did  not  expect  the  married 
clergy  generally  to  drop  their  wives  all  at  once,  and 
make  a  rush  for  the  new  ideal.  Dunstan  knew  that 
it  would  take  time  and  tact  to  make  celibacy  the 
rule,  or  even  the  ideal,  in  slow  and  easy-going  Eng- 
land. The  bishops  of  Worcester  and  of  Winchester 
expelled  the  married  Canons  from  their  Cathedrals 
and  substituted  Benedictine  monks;  but  Dunstan 
allowed  them  to  retain  their  places  at  Canterbury 
under  stricter  rule.  His  influence  was  undoubtely 
given  to  the  monastic  clergy,  but  he  showed  a  states- 
manlike and  Christian  moderation  in  dealing  with 
the  secular  clergy,  and  in  not  trying  to  force  his 
own  ideals  too  fast.  By  so  doing  Dunstan  promoted 
the  peace  and  good  of  the  Church,  as  he  certainly 
promoted  the  order  and  prosperity  of  the  English 
nation. 

The  latter  part  of  his  public  career  was  stormy, 
but  after  his  retirement  from  political  life  he  passed 
his  days  peacefully  at  Canterbury  in  prayer  and 
praise,  in  preaching  regularly  in  his  Cathedral,  and 
writing  pastoral  letters  to  his  bishops,  in  music  and 
the  making  of  musical  instruments, — his  favorite 
amusement,  as  of  old,  the  working  in  metal,  the 
making  of  bells  and  organs.  ^'But  as  he  looked  out 
upon  the  world  which  he  had  left,  he  could  not  but 
have  felt  that  he  had  been  permitted  to  set  his 
mark  for  good  upon  the  English  Church,"  and  even 
more  upon  the  English  nation.  It  has  been  noted 
[195] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

that  the  year  of  his  death  988,  was  the  commence- 
ment of  the  last  and  greatest  invasion  of  the  Danes 
— the  Danish  Conquest  of  England. 

**We  are  now  called  upon,"  says  Mr.  Cruttwell, 
'*to  witness  one  of  those  dramatic  transformations 
of  character,  which  Shakespeare  has  pictured  for  us 
in  Prince  Hal,  and  of  which  in  all  history  is  no  more 
striking  instance  than  that  of  Cnut." 

The  coming  of  the  Danish  King  Sweyne,  and  then 
of  his  son  Cnut,  resulted,  after  a  terrible  struggle, 
in  giving  a  Danish  King  to  all  England  in  1017.  By 
a  strange  and  merciful  Providence  it  gave  England, 
in  Cnut,  one  of  the  best  Kings  it  has  ever  had. 
Beginning  with  slaughter  and  banishments,  as  soon 
as  his  position  was  secure,  this  ruthless  barbarian 
was  completely  transformed.  Cnut  became  erelong 
a  model  King,  wise,  just,  and  devout,  and  greatly  be- 
loved. He  pursued  the  same  pacific  policy  with 
his  English  subjects  that  Edgar  and  Dunstan  had 
pursued  with  the  Danes,  carrying  it  much  further, 
and  succeeded  in  welding  England  into  one  Nation- 
ality as  had  never  been  done  before.  Foreigner 
as  he  was,  he  ruled  like  a  native-born  prince  by 
the  old  constitution  of  the  realm,  administering 
''Edgar's  Law"  wisely  and  justly,  knowing  no  dif- 
ference between  conqueror  and  conquered.  He  put 
the  four  great  provinces  into  which  the  kingdom  was 
now  divided  under  English  instead  of  Danish  Earls. 
He  used  English  troops  for  the  Conquest  of  Norway, 
and  English  priests  for  the  conversion  of  Denmark, 
and  made  some  of  them  bishops  of  Danish  Sees.    Cnut 

[196] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  DANES 

proved  himself  worthy  of  English  trust  by  trusting 
the  English  himself.  Thus  for  eighteen  years  he 
promoted  peace  and  good  will  in  State  and  Church. 
His  own  marriage  to  the  Norman  Emma,  the  widow 
of  the  English  King  Ethelred,  seemed  to  bring  about 
the  marriage  of  Dane  and  English.  To  the  Church, 
in  particular,  he  showed  the  greatest  reverence  and 
generosity.  He  made  reparation  for  his  father's  and 
his  own  cruelty  and  crimes  by  the  most  liberal  gifts 
and  benefactions.  He  encouraged  a  high  standard 
for  the  clergy,  and  rewarded  merit.  At  Bury  St. 
Edmund's  he  built  and  endowed  a  Benedictine 
Abbey  to  the  memory  of  the  martyred  English  King 
Edmund  slain  by  the  earlier  Danes.  He  translated 
to  Canterbury  with  great  honor  the  body  of  Arch- 
bishop Elphege  who  had  fallen  nobly  in  defending 
the  city  from  Danish  outrages.  Cnut,  as  King  of 
Denmark,  Norway,  most  of  Sweden,  and  all  Eng- 
land, was  the  greatest  potentate  of  his  day  in 
Europe  except  the  King  of  Germany,  the  Emperor 
of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire.  There  is  no  reason  to 
question  the  sincerity  of  his  love  for  England,  and 
for  the  religion  of  the  English,  which  had  now  be- 
come his  own.  There  was  hope  for  a  Church,  which, 
lately  ruined  and  desolated,  could  make  such  a  con- 
vert as  Cnut,  and  which  could  erelong  transform 
his  Danish  followers  into  Christians  and  Churchmen 
and  law-abiding  English  subjects.  It  was  the  per- 
sonal character  and  influence  of  Cnut  which  brought 
order  and  peace  out  of  chaos  in  England,  for  at  his 
death  his  dynasty  went  to  pieces  almost  immediately 
[197] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

under  his  degenerate  sons.    No  wonder  that  ''Merrily 
sang  the  Monks  in  Ely  when  Cnut  King  rowed  by. ' ' 

During  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  the  good  King 
wrote  to  his  English  subjects: — '*I  have  vowed  to 
God  to  lead  a  right  life  in  all  things,  to  rule  justly 
and  piously  my  realms  and  subjects,  and  to  admin- 
ister just  judgment  to  all.  If  heretofore  I  have  done 
aught  beyond  what  was  just,  through  headiness  or 
negligence  of  youth,  I  am  ready  with  God's  help  to 
amend  it  utterly." 


[198] 


VII 

The  Coming  of  the  Normans,  and  the  Increase 
OF  Papal  Power  in  the  English  Church 

The  Danes  had  done  this  much  for  England :  they 
had  made  it  all  one  Kingdom, — and  one  Kingdom 
it  remained  henceforth  under  all  claimants  to  the 
throne.  Moreover  the  Danes  in  England  had  now 
become  merged  into  one  people  with  the  English. 
But  hardly  had  this  been  accomplished  when  the 
invasion  of  another  set  of  Northmen,  called  Nor- 
mans, brought  yet  another  kindred  but  wholly  dif- 
ferent people  to  rule  the  English  and  to  be  ulti- 
mately blended  with  them  into  one  race  and  State 
and  Church. 

The  loyalty  and  love  which  his  English  subjects 
gave  to  good  King  Cnut  were  turned  to  loathing  and 
contempt  for  the  Danish  dynasty  under  his  two  de- 
generate sons,  Harold  I  and  Harthacnut.  When  the 
latter  of  these  kings,  a  more  worthless  savage  even 
than  his  brother,  ''died  as  he  stood  at  his  drink,** 
it  did  not  require  much  persuasion  on  the  part  of 
Earl  Godwin  for  the  Witan  in  1043  to  restore  the 
old  English  royal  line  of  Alfred  and  Ethelred  in  the 
person  of  Ethelred 's  son  Edward.  As  the  son  also  of 
the  fair  and  famous  Norman  Emma,  Edward  was  the 
step-son  of  Cnut,  so  that  his  election  to  the  throne 
was  according  to   the   fitness   of  things.     But  his 

[199] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

reign,  so  far  from  strengthening  the  cause  of  the 
English  nation  and  Church,  only  served  to  prepare 
the  way  for  the  new  foreign  domination  in  each. 
Thirty  out  of  the  forty  years  of  Edward's  previous 
life  had  been  spent  in  congenial  exile  from  his  native 
land  at  the  Norman  Court  in  France,  where  he  had 
virtually  become  a  Norman  himself  in  speech  and 
temperament  and  sympathies.  On  the  English 
throne  he  was  far  more  of  a  foreigner  than  Cnut 
the  Dane  had  been.  Fortunately,  however,  the 
beginning  of  his  reign  was  largely  controlled  by 
Godwin,  then  the  foremost  and  ablest  statesman  of 
his  country,  the  maker  and  manager  of  kings,  and  a 
thorough-going  Englishman.  This  great  Earl  of 
Wessex,  who  had  been  almost  the  viceroy  of  Cnut, 
held  for  a  while  the  same  position  under  Edward  the 
Confessor,  with  the  additional  advantage  of  being 
his  father-in-law.  Godwin,  though  hard  and  grasp- 
ing, was  as  wise  and  cautious  as  he  was  eloquent 
and  popular.  The  weakest  point  of  this  strong  man 
was  his  nepotism,  his  policy  of  promoting  his  own 
family — good,  bad,  and  indifferent — which  made  him 
uphold  such  a  reprobate  as  his  outlawed  son  Swein. 
And  it  was  this  weakness  which  lost  him  for  a  while 
the  popular  favor  when  he  came  into  collision  with 
the  growing  rival  party  at  Edward's  Court.  The 
national  and  patriotic  party  led  by  Godwin  had 
their  hands  full  in  keeping  the  King  from  yielding 
up  everything  to  his  foreign  favorites  the  Normans, 
with  whom  he  was  fast  filling  the  best  places  in  State 
and  Church.    The  Norman  Conquest  of  England  was 

[200] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 

not  as  sudden  as  it  seems.  Edward's  reign  only 
served  to  bridge  over  the  interval  between  the 
Danish  Conquest  and  the  more  complete  and  lasting 
Conquest  by  the  Normans.  He  opened  the  way  for 
the  latter.  Edmund  the  Confessor,  was  not  only 
more  Norman  than  English,  but  more  monk  than 
King,  or  man.  The  Church  occupied  his  thoughts 
and  plans  more  than  the  State,  and  his  ecclesiastical 
predilections  were  all  in  favor  of  the  rapidly-grow- 
ing Papal  system  of  Hildebrand,  of  which  the  Nor- 
mans were  now  the  most  strenuous  champions.  The 
National  Church  of  England  had  kept  itself  up  to 
this  time  comparatively  independent  of  the  increas- 
ing encroachments  of  the  new-fashioned  papacy  on 
the  continent.  It  was  the  only  National  Church  left 
in  Europe  which  had  not  surrendered  to  the  Roman 
supremacy.  Its  time  for  this  was  to  come  later,  and 
Edward  the  Confessor  was  the  advance  guard  of  the 
Papacy,  as  well  as  of  the  Normans  in  England.  He 
undertook  to  Normanize  and  to  Romanize  the  Eng- 
lish Church.  And  to  Romanize  meant  now,  as  it  had 
not  in  the  times  of  Augustine  and  of  Theodore,  to 
Papalize.  The  English  were  the  first  people  to  attain 
to  nationality,  and  they  were  the  last  to  surrender 
the  chief  characteristic  of  their  Church — its  inde- 
pendence and  self-government.  This  was  to  lie  dor- 
mant for  a  while,  and  it  was  then  to  pass  through 
a  tremendous  struggle  for  life,  but  it  would  ultim- 
ately prove  **the  survival  of  the  fittest.'*  Its  power 
of  persistence  would  conquer  all  conquerors  in  the 
long  run.  But  the  battle  was  begining,  and  Edward 
[201] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  Confessor  probably  did  as  much  by  his  weakness 
as  William  the  Conqueror  did  by  his  strength  to 
undermine  the  strong  sense  of  Nationality  in  Eng- 
lish State  and  Church.  Even  the  stem  hand  of 
Earl  Godwin,  which  was  holding  back  the  Danes 
and  other  outside  foes  of  England,  was  not  strong 
enough  to  save  it  from  the  Norman  foe  that  had 
found  lodgment  within  in  the  person  of  the  King. 
It  was  especially  into  the  Church,  into  its  chief 
bishopsprics  and  abbacies,  that  Edward  had  ad- 
mitted his  Norman  favorites,  and  these  were  far 
from  being  the  best  that  Normandy  could  furnish. 
A  Norman  monk  named  William,  whom  he  made 
bishop  of  London,  seems  to  have  been  the  only  good 
appointment  of  the  lot.  Ulf,  whom  he  made  bishop 
of  Dorchester,  was  so  conspicuously  incompetent 
that  the  old  Chronicle  says,  ''he  did  nothing  bishop- 
like, so  that  it  shames  us  to  tell  more."  The  climax 
of  these  appointments  was  reached  when  the  See  of 
Canterbury  became  vacant.  The  monks  of  Canter- 
bury duly  elected  one  of  their  number,  Aelfrie,  a 
kinsman  of  Earl  Godwin,  but  the  King  passed  him 
over  and  bestowed  the  Primacy  on  Robert,  the  Nor- 
man Abbot  of  Jumi^ge,  whom  he  had  previously 
made  bishop  of  London.  Robert  became  the  King's 
prime  favorite  and  adviser  in  ecclesiastical  affairs, 
and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  most  unpopular  men 
in  England.  Robert  refused  to  consecrate  Spear- 
hafoc,  who  was  appointed  bishop  of  London  by 
King  and  Witan,  declaring  he  had  been  forbidden 
to  do  so  by  the  Pope.  ''We  hear  first,"  says  Freeman, 
[202] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 

**of  bishops  going:  to  Rome  for  consecration  or  con- 
firmation, and  of  the  Roman  court  claiming  at  least 
a  veto  in  the  nomination  of  the  English  King."  Be- 
sides the  Norman  bishops,  the  foreign  influence  was 
further  extended  by  the  establishment  of  alien 
Priories  filled  with  foreign  monks  and  constituted 
as  branches  of  Norman  monasteries.  Thus  the  pious 
King  surrounded  himself  with  a  party  thoroughly 
hostile  to  Godwin  and  the  English  patriotic  party, 
and  no  less  opposed  to  the  spirit  and  methods  of  the 
National  Church.  A  violent  collision  between  the 
two  factions  occurred  at  Dover  in  which  some  of  the 
Norman  nobles  in  the  train  of  Eustice,  Count  of 
Boulogne  and  the  King's  brother-in-law,  were 
roughly  handled.  This  occurred  when  Godwin  was 
out  of  favor  not  only  at  Court  but  with  the  people, 
and  he  was  outlawed  and  banished.  During  his 
exile  William,  Duke  of  Normandy,  and  a  powerful 
rival  of  Godwin,  paid  a  visit  to  Edward  his  royal 
kinsman,  and  took  occasion  to  spy  out  the  land  that 
seemed  so  likely  to  fall  into  his  hands.  He  found 
Edward  doing  his  own  work  so  well  that  it  seemed 
hardly  worth  while  to  interfere,  and  the  King  is  said 
to  have  promised  William  then  the  succession  to  the 
throne.  The  English  only  required  a  brief  absence 
on  the  part  of  Godwin,  and  the  complete  control  of 
affairs  by  the  foreigners,  to  demand  the  recall  of 
the  only  man  who  could  restore  order  in  England. 
Within  a  year  he  and  his  son  Harold  appeared  in 
the  Thames  with  a  fleet  and  an  army  which  swelled 
into  a  popular  uprising  by  the  time  they  reached 
[203] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

London,  and  made  a  clean  sweep  of  the  Norman 
party.  Archbishop  Robert  and  Bishop  Ulf  had  to 
cut  their  way  out  of  London,  sword  in  hand,  and 
make  for  the  nearest  port  to  Normandy.  ** There," 
says  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  with  evident  de- 
light and  sarcasm,  ''he  lighted  on  a  crazy  ship  and 
betook  himself  at  once  over  sea,  and  left  his  pall 
and  all  Christianity  here  in  the  country,  so  as  God 
willed  it,  as  he  had  before  obtained  the  dignity  as 
God  willed  it  not.'' 

The  Confessor  calmly  surrendered  to  Godwin's 
dominance  again,  and  devoted  the  remaining  twelve 
years  of  his  reign  to  confessing  his  sins  and  other 
congenial  religious  exercises.  The  cultus  of  St. 
Peter  became  now  his  favorite  devotion,  and,  to 
celebrate  the  glories  of  the  Prince  of  the  Apostles, 
Edward  erected  one  of  the  noblest  monuments  ever 
seen  in  England,  the  Abbey  Church  of  Westminster. 
Godwin  died  shortly  after  his  restoration;  but  his 
power  with  even  more  of  his  popularity,  though  less 
of  his  prudence,  passed  to  Earl  Harold  his  son. 
** Harold,"  we  are  told,  **was  at  this  time  thirty 
years  old,  in  the  prime  of  his  splendid  manhood.  His 
tall  and  well-knit  frame,  his  frank  manners  and 
genial  humor,  combined  with  his  military  and  states- 
manlike capacity  to  make  him  the  obvious  leader  of 
the  nation,  and  the  typical  embodiment  of  the  Eng- 
lish ideal.  .  .  .  Harold's  qualities  were  such  as 
speedily  to  secure  him  a  complete  ascendancy  in  the 
King's  counsels"  (Cruttwell).  Edward  loved  Har- 
old, but  never  even  liked  Godwin.  Harold's  eccle- 
[204] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 

siastical  policy,  however,  was  quite  the  reverse  of 
Edward's.  When  he  did,  reluctantly,  appoint  a 
foreigner  to  office  in  the  Church,  he  chose  a  German 
Lorrainer  as  an  offset  to  the  Norman  ecclesiastics, 
and  gave  his  countenance  to  the  secular  rather  than 
the  regular  clergy,  especially  in  the  great  Abbey 
and  Collegiate  establishment  which  he  built  at  Wal- 
tham. 

Edward  the  Confessor  died  in  1066,  a  week  after 
the  consecration  of  his  great  West  Minster,  and 
there  he  was  buried ;  and  there  Harold,  whom  he  had 
designated  on  his  death-bed  as  his  successor,  was 
crowned  for  a  reign  of  only  nine  months.  But 
within  that  same  year  another  King  w^as  crowned 
there  also  on  Christmas-day  1066 — the  Norman  Con- 
queror of  Harold  the  last  of  the  Saxon  kings. 

Shortly  before  this,  Harold  had  defeated  the 
terrible  invader,  the  Norwegian  Goliath,  Harold 
Hardrada,  and  Tostig,  the  traitorous  brother  of  the 
English  Harold,  at  Stamford  Bridge ;  but  had  fallen 
on  the  fatal  field  of  Senlac  near  Hastings  in  his 
heroic  struggle  with  the  mighty  Norman.  Professor 
Burrows 's  ''Commentary"  on  this  is  a  fine  tribute 
to  Harold's  last  act  of  heroism.  "We  should  be 
inexcusable,"  he  declares,  "if  we  did  not  admit  that 
as  a  gallant  soldier,  fighting  to  the  death  for  Eng- 
land against  the  foreign  invader,  Harold  will  always 
have  a  grand  place  in  the  list  of  national  heroes.  He 
must  have  it.  It  is  perhaps  the  finest  thing  in  Eng- 
lish history,  —  that  noble  stand,  with  a  half -disci- 
plined, half-armed  force,  against  the  organized  host 
[205] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

of  France  and  Normandy,  led  by  the  greatest  cap- 
tain of  the  age.  In  all  other  respects,  morally, 
religiously,  and  politically,  Harold  was  neither 
better  nor  worse  than  his  contemporaries."  (''Com- 
mentaries on  the  History  of  England.")  Those  of 
you  who  enjoy  a  good  historical  romance,  as  an 
occasional  diversion  from  Hebrew,  or  Dogmatics, 
and  as  perhaps  an  aid  to  livelier  Homiletics,  might 
well  afford  to  read  (in  vacation-time,  of  course)  one 
of  Bulwer's  best  novels,  "Harold — the  Last  of  the 
Saxon  Kings;"  and,  as  another  of  the  same  sort  and 
same  period,  Charles  Kingsley's  "Hereward  the 
Wake— Last  of  the  English." 

The  death  of  Harold  left  England  without  any 
national  leader  competent  to  cope  with  William  the 
Norman,  who  had  come  to  claim  the  throne.  There 
was  none  of  Harold's  line  fit  to  succeed  him, — none 
of  the  old  royal  line  of  Alfred  but  a  boy  Eadgar, 
grandson  of  Edmund  Ironsides.  He  indeed  was 
proclaimed  King,  but  almost  his  first  public  act  was 
to  head  the  representatives  of  the  English  nobles, 
clergy  and  people,  to  offer  the  crown  to  the  irresisti- 
ble Norman  on  his  arrival  in  London.  ''They  bowed 
to  him  for  need,"  is  the  pathetic  chronicle.  It 
would  take  years  yet  for  William  to  conquer  all 
England,  but  future  resistance  would  be  only  local 
and  occasional,  and  was  bound  to  be  futile.  William 
claimed  the  English  throne,  not  as  Conqueror,  but 
as  the  legitimate  heir  to  it;  but  until  his  forced 
election  by  the  Witan,  he  had  no  legal  or  moral 
claim  whatever.  ' '  William  was  not  descended,  even 
[206] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 

in  the  female  line,  from  any  English  King ;  his  whole 
kindred  with  Edward  was  that  Edward's  mother 
Emma  was  William's  great  aunt."  (Freeman.)  He 
was  a  bastard  besides.  Edward,  indeed,  seems  to 
have  promised  the  crown  to  William.  Harold,  too, 
during  an  unwilling  detention  as  a  prisoner  at  the 
Norman  court,  had  probably  taken  an  oath  under 
duress  to  support  William's  claim.  But  neither  the 
promise  of  the  one  nor  the  oath  of  the  other  gave 
any  valid  right.  The  crown  was  not  theirs  to  give 
to  any  successor.  It  was  not  yet  hereditary,  and 
William  was  not  the  heir.  He  never  acquired  any 
sort  of  right  until  he  was  hastily  elected  by  the 
panic-stricken  Witan,  and  duly  crowned  in  Eng- 
glish  fashion.  But,  although  the  Norman  Duke  had 
come  to  England  with  no  backing  there  to  his  claim, 
and  only  one  Englishman  had  fought  for  him  at 
Hastings,  he  crossed  the  Channel  with  a  very  for- 
midable backing  on  the  other  side — with  the  public 
sentiment  of  all  Europe  to  support  him.  He  had 
proclaimed  Harold  far  and  wide  as  a  perjurer,  a 
traitor,  and  an  enemy  to  Holy  Church ;  and  Western 
Christendom  outside  of  England  espoused  the  Nor- 
man's cause.  The  Roman  Church,  above  all,  had 
taken  up  the  quarrel  of  William  with  England,  with 
the  Pope  to  sanction  the  expedition  as  a  religious 
Crusade,  and  to  bless  the  banner  that  floated  trium- 
phant over  the  field  of  Senlac.  Pope  Alexander  II 
even  spared  one  hair  of  St.  Peter  for  a  ring  on  Wil- 
liam's  finger.  The  Papacy  had  its  own  quarrel  with 
the  English  Church,  which  had  held  out  so  strongly 
[207  1 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHUECH  OF  ENGLAND 

against  the  claims  of  Eome  to  universal  and  su- 
preme authority.  William's  expedition  was  for  the 
Conquest  of  the  English  Church  to  Rome,  as  well  as 
for  the  Conquest  of  the  English  throne  for  himself. 
It  has  been  well  said,  **The  changes  in  the 
religious  life  of  England  brought  about  by  the 
Norman  Conquest  were  not  less  important  than 
those  subsequently  due  to  the  Reformation.  Dur- 
ing the  fifty  years  which  followed  the  coming  of 
William,  the  Church  of  England  became  cosmopoli- 
tan instead  of  insular,  feudal  instead  of  national, 
papal  instead  of  independent.  For  five  hundred 
years  the  connection  between  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land and  the  Church  of  Rome  had  been  but  slight. 
Archbishops  had  received  their  palls  from  the  pope. 
Peter's  pence  had  been  paid  with  commendable 
regularity.  .  .  .  But  no  serious  attempt  had  been 
made  by  the  popes,  since  the  days  of  Wilfrid,  to  im- 
pose their  own  will  unasked  upon  the  English 
Church,  or  to  interfere  with  her  own  management 
of  her  own  business.  Her  bishops  and  archbishops 
were  appointed  by  the  King  and  the  Witan.  Her 
laws  were  either  made  by  synods  of  bishops,  and 
accepted  and  forced  by  the  King,  or  made  by  the 
King  and  Witan  and  accepted  by  the  bishops.  They 
were  interpreted  by  courts  held  under  the  joint 
presidency  of  the  bishop  and  the  alderman.  The 
ecclesiastical  struggles  which  agitated  the  Contin- 
ent hardly  affected  the  English  Church  at  all.  She 
was  a  passive,  perhaps  unconscious,  spectator  of  the 
terrible   degradation   of  the  papacy   in  the   tenth 

[208] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 

century.  She  was  unmoved  by  its  extraordinary 
revival  under  the  influence  of  Hildebrand  in  tne 
eleventh  century."    (Wakeman.) 

It  is  hard  to  imagine  a  more  striking  contrast  than 
that  between  the  English  and  the  Normans  at  this 
time.  Although  sprung  originally  from  the  same 
Northern  Teutonic  stock,  and  destined  erelong  to 
be  fused  into  one  people  in  England,  their  charac- 
teristics were  almost  opposite.  The  Normans  were 
another  variety  of  the  same  Northmen  commonly 
called  Danes  in  England,  who  had  already  con- 
quered England.  While  one  set  of  them  were  in- 
vading England  in  the  ninth  century,  another 
were  doing  the  same  thing  in  France.  There  they 
had  conquered  the  country  on  either  side  of  the  river 
Seine,  to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  Normandy. 
During  the  two  centuries  that  followed,  these  had 
become  Frenchmen,  just  as  their  brothers  across 
the  Channel  had  become  Englishmen.  It  was  their 
peculiarity  to  become  merged  always  into  the  people 
among  whom  they  settled,  appropriating  whatever 
they  found  better  in  the  conquered,  and  generally 
improving  on  it.  They  were  nowhere  a  home-mak- 
ing or  nation-making  people,  but  cosmopolitans, 
who  absorbed  from  other  nations,  and  gave  a  new 
vigor  and  enterprise  to  such  nations.  They  were 
probably  the  most  progressive  people  in  Europe  at 
this  time — delighting  in  whatever  was  splendid  and 
imposing  and  on  a  large  scale.  They  had  quickly 
taken  on  the  type  of  civilization  and  Christianity 
most  generally  accepted  in  Europe,  and  which  was 
[209] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

reaching  out  for  the  control  of  the  world.  They 
accepted  with  enthusiasm  the  dazzling  scheme  of 
the  Hildebrandian  Papacy,  and  became  the  allies 
of  the  popes  for  the  subjection  of  the  European 
states  to  papal  authority. 

Already,  under  Robert  Guiscard  and  other  adven- 
turous nobles,  they  had  made  themselves  masters  of 
Sicily  and  Southern  Italy.  There  they  constituted 
themselves  a  sort  of  standing  army  and  body-guards 
to  the  Papacy  in  its  struggles  with  the  Empire  for 
temporal  and  spiritual  power.  They  became  also 
the  leaders  in  the  Crusades,  and  were  the  first  to 
recover  the  Holy  City  of  Jerusalem  from  Moslem 
misrule  and  restore  it  to  Christendom.  In  Nor- 
mandy, during  the  century  which  preceded  their 
coming  to  England,  they  had  welcomed  the  revival 
of  learning  and  art  and  religion  which  had  spread 
Northward  from  Italy.  Normandy  had  become  fam- 
ous for  its  great  monastic  schools,  its  splendid  Nor- 
man churches  unrivalled  anywhere,  and  glorious 
monasteries  which  sprang  up  as  if  by  magic  all 
all  over  their  Duchy,  displaying  a  richness  of  imag- 
inative genius  in  architecture,  then  the  foremost  art, 
which  had  no  equal  in  the  world.  They  had  also 
appropriated  the  Roman  love  of  order  and  discipline 
and  organization,  along  with  the  Roman  religion,  as 
thoroughly  as  if  these  had  been  their  own  creations. 
Thus  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  coming  of  the 
Normans  brought  much  that  was  good  and  great 
and  sorely  needed  to  England,  whatever  might  be 
the  attending  and  ultimate  evils.  They  gave  a  new 
[210] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 

impulse  and  a  higher  impulse,  unquestionably,  to  a 
Church  which  had  latterly  become  ignorant  and 
narrow  and  sluggish.  As  Mr.  Patterson  remarks, 
''That  which  Carlyle  calls  the  ''pot-bellied  equanim- 
ity" of  the  Anglo-Saxons  required  discipline  and 
drill,  and  they  got  it,  both  in  the  secular  and  religi- 
ous spheres,  from  Norman  drill-sergeants."  The 
English  Church  needed  waking  up  to  a  larger  and 
better  life,  and  the  Normans  awoke  it  to  a  struggle 
which  called  forth  all  its  dormant  capacities.  What- 
ever temporary  hardships  and  losses  might  be  in- 
volved, the  outcome,  in  the  long  run,  would  be  a 
greater  and  more  glorious  Church  of  England  for 
the  Anglo-Norman  race.  As  has  been  said,  "the  infus- 
ion of  the  finer  Norman  blood  into  the  English  and 
Danish  composition,  .  .  .  after  the  day  of  adversity 
was  past,  made  the  conquered  people  glory  in  their 
checkered  history."     (Burrows.) 

William  the  Conqueror  would  have  been  a  great 
man  in  any  age  or  country.  He  was  born  at  Falaise 
in  1027,  and  succeeded  his  father  Robert,  Duke  of 
Normandy,  when  he  was  only  seven  years  old.  He 
reigned  for  fifty-two  years  over  his  Norman  duchy. 
It  is  related  that  when  he  was  a  baby,  this  natural 
son  of  Robert  II  and  of  the  tanner's  daughter 
Arlotta,  clutched  a  straw  from  the  floor  and  held  it 
so  fast  in  his  little  fist  that  it  could  not  be  taken 
from  him.  The  child  was  father  to  the  man.  Hav- 
ing enlarged  his  dominions  in  France  greatly,  and 
often  proved  his  military  skill  and  prowess,  he  was 
now  to  show  even  greater  ability  as  a  ruler  and 
[211] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

statesman  on  a  larger  scale  than  ever  before;  for 
he  did  not  abandon  his  Norman  duchy  when  he  took 
England.  It  was  not  until  four  or  five  years  after 
the  battle  of  Senlac  that  William,  having  put  down 
all  serious  revolt,  became  master  of  all  England. 
Then  he  turned  his  attention  to  reorganizing  the 
whole  political  and  ecclesiastical  life  of  the  Eng- 
lish. In  doing  this  his  policy  was  as  shrewd  and 
far-sighted  as  it  was  stern  and  relentless.  Like 
Cnut,  he  aimed  to  be  a  real  English  King,  but,  un- 
like the  Dane,  he  could  not  be  loved  by  the  English, 
and  did  not  deserve  to  be.  Love  was  not  his  strong 
point.  He  was  always  feared,  however,  and  very 
often  respected.  He  reversed  Cnut's  policy  of  put- 
ting an  Englishman  wherever  he  could  by  **  turning 
the  rascals  out"  of  every  place  they  held.  Hard 
and  merciless  as  he  was  to  his  Anglo-Saxon  sub- 
jects, he  did  not  attempt  to  overthrow  their  King- 
dom and  Church,  their  laws  and  institutions.  His 
idea  was  to  leave  these  mostly  intact,  but  by  degrees 
to  gradually  adapt  them  to  the  altered  conditions — 
to  transform  every  thing  by  putting  the  bold,  pro- 
gressive Norman  spirit  into  the  whole  machinery 
of  government.  He  gradually  changed  the  entire 
personel,  substituting  his  Norman  friends  for  his 
English  enemies  everywhere.  Thus  a  new  set  and  a 
new  type  of  men,  with  new  language,  ideas,  habits, 
took  the  place  of  the  old  land-owners,  earls  and 
thegns,  bishops  and  abbots,  until  the  English  Na- 
tion and  Church  were  quite  metamorphosed,  and 
''hardly  knew  where  they  were  at."     I  cannot  do 

[212] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 

more  here  than  to  point  out  some  of  the  leading 
changes  wrought  by  his  ecclesiastical  policy. 

In  his  way  William  was  a  religious  man — a  devout 
son  of  the  Church,  according  to  the  standard  of  his 
time  and  country ;  and  among  the  princes  of  his  daj^ 
exceptionally  faithful  to  his  wife,  and  free  from 
simony  in  his  ecclesiastical  appointments.  But  the 
English  Church,  which  had  been  intensely  national 
and  ardent  in  its  support  of  Harold,  must  be  bent 
to  the  will  of  the  Conqueror.  The  English  bishops, 
in  particular,  had  been  among  his  strongest  oppon- 
ents, and  William  was  **very  stark  towards  those 
who  withstood  him."  At  first  the  King  only  filled 
the  vacant  Sees  with  Norman  bishops;  but,  when 
he  determined  to  depose  the  remaining  English 
bishops,  instead  of  playing  the  tyrant  himself  and 
overriding  English  law,  he  shrewdly  deferred  to 
the  Pope,  and  allowed  him  the  long-sought  oppor- 
tunity of  taking  a  hand  in  English  ecclesiastical 
affairs.  In  order  to  clear  the  decks  for  action,  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  must  be  the  first  to  go 
overboard.  This  was  Stigand,  the  friend  and  par- 
tisan of  Godwin  and  Harold.  He  had  been  pro- 
moted to  Canterbury,  without  giving  up  Winchester, 
when  Robert  the  Norman  archbishop  had  to  flee  for 
his  life.  This  See  had  not  been  connically  vacated. 
Robert  had  been  driven  away  and  outlawed,  but  he 
still  claimed  his  office,  and  the  Pope  had  sustained 
the  claim.  Consequently  the  appointment  of  Stigand 
had  been  irregular,  to  say  the  least.  To  make  mat- 
ters worse,  Stigand,  having  no  pall  of  his  own,  had 
[213] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

assumed  that  left  behind  by  Robert  in  his  hasty  flight. 
Later  he  had  received  a  pall  from  Benedict  X,  who 
had  not  made  good  his  own  election  and  had  been 
turned  out  as  a  schismatic  anti-pope.  There  were 
not  unfrequently  in  those  days  two  popes,  and  some- 
times three  in  the  field.  Even  Harold  himself  had 
not  allowed  Stigand  to  officiate  at  the  consecration  of 
his  new  Waltham  Abbey,  or  at  the  funeral  of  Ed- 
ward the  Confessor,  or  at  Harold's  own  coronation. 
William  had  been  crowned  by  the  Archbishop  of  York, 
although  he  allowed  Stigand  to  be  present,  and  other- 
wise treated  him  with  consideration.  And  yet  Stigand 
had  held  the  Primacy  for  nineteen  years.  Now  Wil- 
liam wanted  the  place  for  a  better  man,  and  one  who 
would  carry  out  his  ecclesiastical  policy.  So  he  al- 
lowed the  Pope  the  rare  privilege  of  turning  out  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  incidentally  other 
bishops  at  the  same  time.  The  King  graciously  in- 
vited the  Pope  to  send  his  Legates  to  England — 
something  which  had  not  happened  there  for  about 
300  years.  Accordingly  at  a  great  National  Council 
at  Winchester  in  Easter  Week,  1070,  William  was 
first  crowned  over  again  by  the  Papal  legates,  and 
then  began  the  business  of  deposing  the  national 
bishops.  Stigand 's  case  was  soon  disposed  of.  He 
was  not  only  removed  from  his  high  office,  but  was 
kept  under  restraint  at  Winchester  for  the  rest  of 
his  life.  Then  followed  his  brother  Athelmar,  the 
East  Anglian  bishop,  and  Athelwin  of  Durham.  Soon 
after  Athelric,  Bishop  of  Selsey,  was  disposed  of.  (It 
was   a   cold   day   for   Athels.)     When   the   English 

[214] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 

bishops  were  finished  up,  the  abbots  took  their  turn 
in  going  out.  Only  one  English  bishop  was  left  to 
keep  up  the  Anglo-Saxon  line ;  and  his  case  is  a  most 
interesting  one.  "Old  Bishop  Wulfstan,"  we  are 
told,  ''was  indebted  to  the  holy  simplicity  of  his  life 
for  being  allowed  to  hold  his  See  of  Worcester  dur- 
ing the  reigns  of  William  II.  He  had  been  appointed 
much  against  his  own  will  to  the  See  of  Worcester  in 
1062.  Florence  of  Worcester  tells  us  that  Wulfstan 
declared  ' '  he  would  rather  have  his  head  cut  off  than 
be  a  bishop."  He  was  summoned  before  the  Council 
sitting  in  Westminster  Abbey,  and  charged  like  other 
bishops  with  ignorance  of  the  French  language.  Be- 
ing ordered,  says  Roger  of  Wendover,  to  give  up  his 
bishop's  staff,  he  was  willing  to  obey  the  Council,  but 
he  would  only  surrender  it  to  Edward  the  Confessor 
who  had  given  it  him.  Advancing  to  the  Confessor's 
tomb  there  in  the  Abbey,  and  invoking  in  English 
the  King  whom  both  Normans  and  English  regarded 
as  a  saint,  he  said,  "Master,  thou  knowest  how  un- 
willingly I  took  upon  myself  this  charge.  ...  To 
thee,  therefore,  I  resign  the  charge  which  I  never 
sought."  "He  then  laid  his  crozier  on  the  tomb. 
Then,  turning  to  the  living  King,  he  said  in  the  few 
Norman  words  he  could  command,  'A  better  than 
thou  gave  it  me :  take  it  if  thou  canst. '  No  one  dared 
to  take  it.  The  story  runs  that  no  one  could  take  it, 
for  that  it  adhered  to  the  tomb  till  Wulfstan,  at  the 
command  of  William  himself,  took  it,  and  remained 
bishop  of  Worcester,  the  Cathedral  of  which  he  built, 
until  his  death  at  the  age  of  sixty-eight." 

[215] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

In  connection  with  the  rebuilding  of  the  beautiful 
Worcester  Cathedral,  another  touching  story  of  the 
venerable  bishop  illustrates  his  saintly  character. 
When  the  Minster  was  sufficiently  advanced  to  admit 
of  the  monks  entering  it,  and  the  order  was  given  for 
dismantling  the  roof  of  the  old  building  erected  by 
St.  Oswald,  we  are  told  that  Wulfstan  wept.  He  was 
reproached  by  his  monks  for  not  rather  rejoicing  over 
so  great  a  work,  but  replied,  ''I  look  at  the  matter 
otherwise,  for  wretched  are  we  who  destroy  the  works 
of  the  saints,  that  we  may  gather  fame  for  ourselves. 
That  age  of  blessed  men  knew  not  indeed  how  to  rear 
pompous  temples,  but  rather  how  under  any  sort  of 
roof-tree  to  sacrifice  themselves  to  God,  and  to  draw 
their  flock  by  their  example;  contrariwise  we  of  the 
present  time  vie  with  one  another  in  heaping  up  stones 
and  neglecting  souls." 

The  removal  of  the  English  bishops  and  the  re- 
placing them  with  Normans,  was  followed  in  not  a 
few  cases  by  the  removal  fo  their  Sees  from  small 
villages,  or  decayed  towns,  to  larger  and  busier  cen- 
ters. That  of  Wells  was  removed  to  Bath,  Selsey  to 
Chichester,  Dorchester  to  Lincoln,  Lichfield  to  Ches- 
ter, and  Sherborne  to  Old  Sarum,  afterwards  to  Salis- 
bury. To  the  King's  nephew  Osmund,  Bishop  of  Old 
Sarum,  we  owe  the  revision  of  the  English  Liturgies 
known  as  the  "Use  of  Sarum,"  which  became  sub- 
sequently the  principal  use  of  the  English  Church  and 
the  basis  of  our  Prayer  Book.  It  must  not  be  sup- 
posed, however,  that  these  Episcopal  changes  of  the 
King  were  intended  simply  to  provide  places  for  his 

[216] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 

own  favorites.  However  unjust  his  policy  towards 
the  incumbents  and  to  the  English  people,  William 
seems  to  have  been  conscientious  and  judicious  in  his 
appointment  of  Norman  bishops.  Green  calls  Wil- 
liam's bishops  *' pious,  learned,  energetic."  "The 
Conqueror's  bishops,"  says  Stubbs'  'Svere  generally 
good  and  able  men,  though  not  of  the  English  type 
of  character.  They  were  not  merely  Norman  barons, 
as  was  the  case  later  on,  but  scholars  and  divines 
chosen  under  Lanfranc's  influence."  Even  so  decided 
a  Low  Churchman  as  Charles  Hole  declares,  "These 
higher  Norman  ecclesiastics  did  not  come  in,  like  the 
Italian  dignitaries  of  a  later  day,  to  plunder  the 
Church  of  England  and  carry  off  the  spoils.  Their 
energies  and  the  wealth  they  gathered  w^ere  expended 
in  their  adopted  land.  They  could  not  preach  to  the 
people  in  their  native  tongue ;  but  they  could  in  other 
ways  dignify  religion  and  make  it  attractive  to  the 
higher  classes.  They  were  planting  the  soil  with  great 
palaces  of  religion,  which  have  outlived  most  of  the 
proudest  castles  that  defended  them.  These  cathe- 
drals have  marked  England,  we  may  hope  forever, 
with  the  Divine  Name  of  Christ,  in  lines  of  the  most 
impressive  beauty  that  architecture  can  represent. 
Men  like  these  must  have  helped  to  soften  the  stern 
despotism  in  which  they  had  a  part.  Pledged  as  they 
were  to  the  people,  the  English  as  well  as  the  Nor- 
mans, they  were  unconsciously  helping  to  unite  the 
two  races,  so  building  up  a  second  and  stronger  Eng- 
land than  the  nation  which  had  fallen  with  Harold." 
("A  Manual  of  English  Church  History.") 

[217] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

This  brings  us  to  the  remarkable  man,  who  was 
behind  the  King's  ecclesiastical  policy,  whom  he  made 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  Primate  of  all  Eng- 
land— the  greatest  archbishop  between  Theodore  and 
Anselm.  Lanfranc  was  an  Italian,  born  in  Pavia 
about  1005,  where  he  studied  law  and  became  a  teacher 
of  jurisprudence.  When  about  thirty-five  years  old 
he  was  attracted  to  Normandy  by  its  demand  for 
scholars.  For  a  few  years  he  conducted  a  successful 
school  at  Avranches.  Then  he  suddenly  resolved  to 
renounce  the  world  and  secular  teaching  and  devote 
himself  to  the  religious  life  in  some  solitary  retreat. 
As  he  wandered  through  the  forests  of  Ouche  he  fell 
among  thieves  who  stripped  him  of  his  small  store  of 
valuables  and  left  him  bound  to  a  tree  with  his  hands 
tied  behind  him.  In  this  evil  plight  he  tried  to  pray, 
but  found  to  his  dismay  that  he  had  forgotten  how. 
His  loud  cries  for  help,  however,  whether  to  God  or 
man,  or  both,  brought  him  succor  from  some  passing 
Good  Samaritan,  who  loosed  him  and  directed  him  to 
the  humble  cell  of  a  man  of  God  in  the  neighborhood. 
This  was  Herlwin  of  Bee,  engaged  in  building  an  oven 
when  the  unhappy  traveler  presented  himself  beg- 
ging to  be  made  a  monk. 

Here  Lanfranc  spent  a  long  novitiate  of  hard  dis- 
cipline in  a  monastery  which  had  much  religion  and 
no  learning.  Herlwin  himself,  formerly  famous  as  a 
knightly  soldier,  had  just  learned  to  read  at  the  age 
of  forty.  He  and  his  ignorant  monks  needed  a  teacher 
as  much  as  Lanfranc  needed  religious  guidance  and 
discipline.    The  latter  soon  resumed  his  teaching,  now 

[218] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 

as  a  Canonist  and  Theologian,  and  attracted  so  many 
students  from  near  and  far  that  Bee  became  famous 
throughout  Europe.  With  Lanfranc  as  Prior  it  soon 
had  to  be  enlarged.  Among  his  pupils  were  Auselm, 
his  successor  at  Canterbury,  and  another  Anselm  who 
became  Pope  Alexander  II.  It  was  here  that  he  en- 
tered the  field  of  controversy  with  the  famous  Beren- 
gar  of  Tours  and  put  forth  a  notable  treatise  in  de- 
fense of  Transubstantiation,  then  gaining  acceptance 
as  the  scholastic  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Eucharist.  He 
might  have  been  better  employed,  especially  as  his 
doctrine  was  not  true ;  and  * '  it  was  not  in  theology, ' ' 
it  has  been  well  said,  ''that  Lanfranc 's  talents  were 
to  shine  brightest,  but  in  the  field  of  practical  states- 
manship. ' ' 

It  was  while  Lanfranc  was  Prior  at  Bee,  that 
William,  Duke  of  Normandy,  became  first  his  bitter 
enemy  and  later  his  fast  friend.  In  defiance  of  Pope 
and  Council  the  masterful  Duke  had  married  his 
cousin  Matilda  of  Flanders  within  forbidden  degrees 
of  relationship.  Lanfranc  expressed  openly  his  strong 
condemnation  of  the  marriage,  and  the  enraged  Wil- 
liam ordered  him  to  leave  the  duchy  and  do  it  quickly. 
So,  amid  the  lamentations  of  his  brethren  and  his 
pupils,  Lanfranc  sorrowfully  departed  from  his  be- 
loved Bee.  The  monastery  could  only  boast  of  one 
horse,  and  that  went  lame  as  the  good  prior  rode 
away.  The  story  goes  that  Lanfranc  met  William  on 
the  road  to  Rouen  and  bowed  politely  to  him — the 
lame  horse  bowing  also,  after  his  kind,  in  sympathy 
with  his  master's  forlorn  situation  and  his  own.    Wil- 

[219] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

liam  demanded  whither  the  rider  was  going,  and  the 
bold  prior  answered  cheerfully,  "I  am  leaving  your 
duchy  in  obedience  to  your  command,  and  would  do 
so  more  quickly,  if  you  would  give  me  a  better  mount. ' ' 
William  replied,  ''You  are  the  first  criminal  I  have 
met  who  asked  a  boon  of  his  judge."  That  was  the 
beginning  of  their  close  friendship  and  partnership 
in  the  government  of  England. 

Lanfranc  remained  at  Bee  till  William  promoted 
him  to  the  new  monastery  which  the  Duke  erected  at 
Caen  in  return  for  the  dispensation  regarding  his  mar- 
riage with  Matilda  which  Lanfranc  got  for  him  from 
Rome.  William's  wonderful  Abbey  at  Caen  still 
stands,  bearing  in  its  stern  grandeur  the  impress  of 
his  genius.  William  afterward  offered  Lanfranc  the 
bishopric  of  Rouen,  which  he  declined.  But  the  King 
of  England  would  take  no  refusal  when  his  friend 
tried  to  beg  off  from  the  Archbishopric  of  Canter- 
bury on  the  plea  that  he  did  not  speak  the  English 
language.  The  English  language  was  now  at  a  dis- 
count in  England,  and  William  himself  was  not  a  first 
class  performer  with  it. 

Lanfranc  has  been  described  by  a  recent  historian, 
Cruttwell,  as  "next  to  Hildebrand  the  first  Church- 
man of  his  time.  Less  heroic  in  his  conceptions  and 
less  covetous  of  power  than  the  Pope,  he  excelled  him 
in  prudence  and  sagacity  of  judgment.  His  supreme 
merit  lies  in  his  perfect  grasp  of  the  problem  before 
him.  By  appealing  to  William's  genuine  religious 
feeling,  by  never  thwarting  his  will,  he  continued  to 
steer  the  Church  of  England  during  these  eventful 

[  220  ] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 

years  with  complete  success,  neither  sacrificing  its  just 
rights  nor  coming  into  collision  with  the  royal  pre- 
rogative. .  .  .  Lanfranc's  policy  was  that  of  Hilde- 
brand  tempered  by  prudence,  softened  by  sympathy, 
and  above  all,  limited  by  William's  despotic  will. 
For  William,  though  genuinely  loyal  to  what  he  con- 
ceived to  be  the  rights  of  the  Pope,  was  entirely  re- 
solved to  wield  supreme  authority  within  his  realm, 
and  to  share  it  neither  with  Pope  nor  Archbishop." 
(''The  Saxon  Church  and  the  Norman  Conquest.") 

And  so  it  came  to  pass  that  the  Duke  of  Normandy 
and  the  Prior  of  Bee,  who  now  thoroughly  understood 
one  another,  undertook  together,  in  their  new  roles 
as  King  and  Archbishop,  to  reform  the  English  Church 
after  the  Norman  fashion,  and,  to  a  certain  extent, 
after  the  Roman  fashion.  They,  and  their  newly  ap- 
pointed bishops  were  men  who  acknowledged  the  au- 
thority of  the  new  kind  of  Papacy,  and  accepted  some 
of  the  new-fangled  Romish  doctrines.  There  were 
several  other  conspicuous  features  of  the  Hilde- 
brandian  scheme  which  the  King  and  the  Archbishop 
did  their  best  to  promote.  One  was  the  much  needed 
reform  of  the  monasteries  according  to  the  stricter 
discipline  and  the  higher  learning  of  the  Clugny  pat- 
tern. Another  was  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  for 
which  Lanfranc  labored  more  zealously  than  wisely, 
with  only  partial  success.  He  had  to  content  himself, 
like  Dunstan,  with  a  compromise.  The  married  clergy 
were  excluded  from  the  Cathedral  chapters.  Mar- 
riage for  the  future  was  forbidden  even  to  the  paro- 

[221] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

chial  clergy,  but  those  already  married  were  not  com- 
pelled to  abandon  their  wives. 

Another  part  of  the  Hildebrandian  program  which 
it  suited  William  to  carry  out,  strange  to  say,  was  the 
entire  separation  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts.  The 
King  probably  hoped  by  this  means  to  balance  the 
bishop's  power  against  that  of  the  barons.  Hitherto 
it  had  been  the  immemorial  legal  system  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  that  the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical  courts 
should  constitute  one  body  presided  over  by  the  bishop 
and  the  alderman  (or  sheriff)  sitting  side  by  side  in 
the  court  of  the  Shire.  The  Witanagemot,  too,  was 
as  much  an  ecclesiastical  as  a  civil  council  of  the  na- 
tion, composed  of  clergy  as  well  as  nobles.  Bishops 
and  their  clergy  were  as  much  subject  to  the  one  com- 
mon law  of  the  land  as  the  humblest  layman.  They 
did  not  constitute  a  separate  caste,  much  less  inde- 
pendent rulers  of  the  laity,  as  the  Theocracy  of  Hilde- 
brand  proposed.  With  less  sagacity  and  foresight 
than  usual,  William  withdrew  the  bishops  and  abbots 
entirely  from  civil  courts,  and  constituted  them  a 
separate  ecclesiastical  court  with  jurisdiction  over  all 
ecclesiastical  persons  and  causes.  This  new  arrange- 
ment was  destined  to  give  endless  trouble  in  England 
under  William's  sons  and  successors  for  centuries  to 
come.  Among  other  dangers  it  opened  the  way  for 
appeals  to  the  Roman  court  from  the  decisions  of  the 
English  ecclesiastical  courts.  It  also  tended  very  soon 
to  put  all  grades  of  ecclesiastics,  from  archbishops  to 
grave-digger,  even  though  guilty  of  the  most  atrocious 
crimes,  beyond  the  reach  of  the  civil  court.    It  went 

[222] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 

far  towards  bringing  about  the  future  struggles  of  the 
Church  with  the  Crown  on  the  one  hand  and  with  the 
Papacy  on  the  other. 

But,  there  was  another  side  to  this  situation,  which 
must  not  be  forgotten,  viz. :  "If  these  measures  were 
fitted  in  some  ways  to  denationalize  the  English 
Church  and  bring  it  into  closer  relation  with  the 
central  authority  at  Rome,  any  such  tendency  was 
more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  legislation,  also  sup- 
ported by  Lanfranc,  which  placed  the  Royal  Su- 
premacy  on  a  footing  which  it  had  never  before  at- 
tained. Thus  it  was  enacted  that  bishops,  like  barons, 
were  to  pay  homage  to  the  Crown,  and  the  clergy  were 
to  acknowledge  no  one  as  Pope  until  the  Royal  consent 
had  first  been  obtained;  that  no  Letters  from  Rome 
were  to  be  published  till  approved  by  the  King;  that 
no  Council  was  to  pass  laws  or  Canons  except  such  as 
should  be  agreeable  to  the  King's  pleasure;  that  no 
bishop  was  to  implead  or  punish  any  of  the  King's 
vassals  without  the  King's  precept;  and  that  no  ec- 
clesiastic was  to  leave  the  country  without  leave 
obtained. 

William  and  Lanfranc  were  willing  enough  to  go 
a  considerable  way  with  the  new  Papal  policy  in 
bringing  about  what  they  considered  needed  reforms ; 
but  they  drew  the  line  at — in  fact  they  erected  a  solid 
stone  wall  in  front  of — the  Royal  Supremacy  over  the 
English  Church.  In  this  respect  William  the  Norman 
out-Englished  the  English,  and  out-Henryed  Henry 
VIII,  by  taking  a  Protestant  position  as  pronounced 
as   Henry's.     The   one   and   only   respect   in   which 

[223] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Henry  VIII  was  ever  Protestant  was  that  he  was 
against  the  Pope.  When  the  Pope  claimed  to  be  the 
Supreme  Head  of  the  Church  in  England,  William, 
like  Henry,  proposed  to  occupy  that  position  himself, 
and  so  announced  and  so  acted.  When  Hildebrand 
became  Pope  in  1073,  and,  in  return  for  the  signal 
service  rendered  to  William  the  Conqueror  by  his  pre- 
decessor in  the  Papacy,  Alexander  II,  demanded  that 
William  should  pay  three  years '  arrears  of  Peter-pence 
and  do  homage  to  the  new  Pope  for  his  crown,  the  an- 
swer came  promptly  and  emphatically,  "One  request 
I  have  granted,  the  other  I  refuse.  Homage  to  thee 
I  have  not  chosen,  nor  do  I  choose  to  do.  I  never 
made  a  promise  to  that  effect,  neither  do  I  find  that 
it  was  ever  performed  by  my  predecessors  to  thine." 
The  King  grimly  concluded  his  letter  to  this  effect  by 
piously  asking  for  the  Pope's  prayers.  We  are  not 
told  whether  he  got  them  or  not.  That  is  another 
story.  But  he  went  on  calmly  investing  his  new 
bishops  in  England  with  ring  and  staff  at  the  very 
time  when  Pope  Gregory  VII  was  excommunicating 
and  deposing  his  own  Emperor  for  doing  the  same 
thing — when  Henry  IV  stood  shivering  in  the  snow 
for  three  days  in  bare  feet  and  no  overcoat  over  his 
penitential  garb  at  Canosa.  Hildebrand  had  taken  the 
measure  of  the  man  on  the  English  throne,  and  had 
learned  that  "there  is  a  time  to  keep  silence."  What- 
ever homage  the  English  Church  might  come  to  render 
to  the  Papacy,  the  old  idea  of  an  independent  National 
Church  under  its  own  Primate  and  King  was  not 
utterly  wiped  out  by  William  and  Lanfranc;   and 

[224] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 

would  be  heard  from  again  when  the  Normans  had 
become  Englishmen  and  the  English  Church  had 
ceased  to  be  Roman  and  become  again  Catholic  and 
Protestant  against  a  recreant  Rome.  Lanfranc  sec- 
onded the  King  in  his  stand  against  the  Papacy  ven- 
turing too  far  in  England.  Although  he  went  to 
Rome  to  get  his  pall,  he  declined  to  repeat  his  visit, 
even  when  he  received  from  Hildebrand  an  imperious 
letter  to  the  following  effect:  "Hitherto  you  have 
out  of  pride  or  negligence  abused  our  patience.  .  .  . 
By  virtue  of  our  Apostolic  authority  we  enjoin  you 
that,  setting  aside  all  pretences  and  insignificant  ap- 
prehensions of  danger,  you  make  j^our  appearance  at 
Rome  within  four  months,"  closing  the  letter  with 
the  threat  of  his  being  thrown  out  of  St.  Peter's  pro- 
tection, and  deposed  from  his  office.  Although  Lan- 
franc lived  eight  years  after  the  receipt  of  this  letter, 
his  only  answer  was  to  stay  at  home  and  attend  to  his 
duties  as  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  Primate  of 
all  England. 

"The  main  Results  of  the  Norman  Conquest"  are 
thus  summed  up  by  Mr.  Freeman,  the  highest  English 
authority  on  this  subject:  "We  can  hardly  be  wrong 
in  calling  it  the  most  important  event  in  English 
history  since  the  first  coming  of  the  English  and  their 
conversion  to  Christianity.  It  was  a  great  and  violent 
change  which,  either  in  its  immediate  or  in  its  most 
distant  results,  touched  everything  in  the  land.  Yet 
there  was  no  break,  no  gap,  parting  the  times  before 
it  from  the  times  after  it.  The  changes  which  it 
wrought  were  to  a  great  extent  only  the  strengthening 

[225] 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

of  tendencies  which  were  already  at  work.  The  direct 
changes  which  we  may  look  upon  as  forming  the  con- 
quest were  done  gradually  and  under  cover  of  legal 
form.  No  old  institutions  were  uprooted,  though  some 
of  them  were  undermined  by  new  institutions  set  up 
alongside  of  them.  The  revolution  which  seemed  to 
be  the  overthrow  of  freedom  led  in  the  end  to  its  new- 
birth.  Under  an  unbroken  succession  of  native  kings, 
freedom  might  have  died  out,  as  it  did  in  some  other 
lands.  As  it  was,  the  main  effect  of  the  Conquest  was 
to  call  out  the  ancient  English  spirit  in  a  more  definite 
and  antagonistic  shape,  to  give  the  English  nation 
new  leaders  who  were  gradually  changed  into  coun- 
trymen, and,  by  the  union  of  the  men  of  both  races, 
to  win  back  the  substance  of  the  old  institutions  under 
new  forms." 

This  seems  to  be  the  proper  place  for  closing  our 
study  of  ''The  Making  of  the  Church  of  England." 
After  the  coming  of  the  Normans  there  was  hardly 
any  new  kind  of  material  added  to  the  marvelous 
mixture  of  ingredients,  racial  and  other,  that  con- 
tributed to  the  constitution  of  the  English  Church. 
All  the  constituents  are  now  in,  that  went  to  the  Mak- 
ing of  this  Church.  The  Reformation,  of  course,  is 
a  very  important  subject,  but  does  not  belong  here. 
That  was  the  Re-formation,  or  Re-making.  The  Mak- 
ing of  this  Church,  we  have  seen,  was  only  part  of 
a  larger  work,  because  the  Church  of  the  English  was 
itself  a  factor  and  a  principal  one  in  the  Making  of 
the  English  Nation,  the  English  Race,  the  English 
Language  and  Literature,  and,  above  all,  the  making 

[226] 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMANS 

of  English  Character.  All  of  us  who,  in  any  measure, 
share  in  these  great  blessings  owe  something  at  least 
to  the  grand  old  English  Church,  and  might  well  hail 
her  in  the  slightly  altered  words  of  Tennyson's  Wel- 
come to  the  Danish  Princess  of  Wales,  now  the  Dow- 
ager Queen  Alexandra  of  England. 

''Saxon  or  Dane  or  Norman  we, 
Teuton  or  Kelt,  or  whatever  we  be. 
We  are  all  one  in  our  welcome  of  thee!" 


[227] 


DATE  DUE 

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GAYLORD 

PRINTED  ;N  U.S.A. 

